


Goggles and Leather

by RedVelvetPanPan



Category: The Walking Dead & Related Fandoms, The Walking Dead (Comics), The Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: Admittedly annoying OC, Blood and Gore, Canon Compliant, Daryl Dixon Needs a Hug, Daryl Dixon is Bad at Feelings, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Eventual Fluff, Eventual Romance, Eventual Smut, F/M, For the most part, Found Family, Friends to Lovers, Glenn Rhee is a Good Friend, Immature OC, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Insecure Daryl Dixon, Merle Dixon Being an Asshole, Merle Redemption, Mutual Pining, Nicknames, OC Eventually Gets Therapy, OC Gets Hurt Way Too Much, OC adopts everyone, OC insert, OC is a Injury Magnet, Past Abuse, Past Child Abuse, Pining, Protective Daryl Dixon, Rick Grimes Being Unhinged, Slow Burn, Unintentionally friendzoning each other, Walkers (Walking Dead), and by eventual I mean maybe someday, hella slow burn, i don’t know how to tag, i mean it’s the apocalypse, so many nicknames, they take ages I’m not kidding
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-30
Updated: 2020-10-30
Packaged: 2021-03-08 17:42:29
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 8
Words: 54,555
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27290653
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RedVelvetPanPan/pseuds/RedVelvetPanPan
Summary: "How could anyone ever trust you with kids?" He asked in bewilderment.Nye gave a half-hearted shrug, downing another shot. "I have no idea man. I don't even find myself charming."Nye is an immature twenty-four year old trying to survive the apocalypse with two kids, and a grudge against the Dixons. Why? Well... She really isn't sure, actually.(Cross-posted from FF.net)
Relationships: Aaron/Eric Raleigh, Abraham Ford & Original Female Character(s), Abraham Ford/Sasha Williams, Carl Grimes & Original Female Character(s), Carol Peletier & Original Female Character(s), Daryl Dixon & Original Female Character(s), Daryl Dixon/Original Character(s), Daryl Dixon/Original Female Character(s), Eugene Porter & Original Female Character(s), Glenn Rhee & Original Female Character(s), Jesus (Walking Dead) & Original Female Character(s), Judith Grimes & Original Female Character(s), Maggie Greene & Original Female Character(s), Maggie Greene/Glenn Rhee, Merle Dixon & Original Female Character(s), Michonne (Walking Dead) & Original Female Character(s), Original Female Character & Original Male Character, Rick Grimes & Original Female Character(s), Rick Grimes/Michonne, Tara Chambler & Original Female Character(s), Tara Chambler/Denise Cloyd
Comments: 6
Kudos: 25





	1. When the world was normal

**Author's Note:**

> This is just the revised chapters I have written so far, copy and pasted from FF.net. As I make the revisions I will update the version on here. The one on FF.net is still being updated, but the first chunk hasn’t been rewritten to my liking yet. So I guess if you read what’s here and decide you want more, there’s plenty on there (under the same name, both the work and my account) but be warned the early stuff that isn’t revised is kinda rough to get through.
> 
> Anyway, please gentle, I’m still not used to Ao3. Thank you.

**(I do not own The Walking Dead, and I never will. This will be the only time I'm saying it. This story follows canon mostly, if you enjoy fanfics were it's like the OCs are dropped in and they're along for the ride, than this is for you. This will also most likely be the slowest Daryl/OC slow burn _ever_. Prepare yourself for a strong friendship before _anything_ romantic.)**

Toby: Dylan Kingwell

Mason: Gaten Matarazzo

Nye: Sarah Bolger

* * *

When the world was normal.

Yeah, that was a phrase she thought of a lot, like right then, as she was bleeding out on the cold unforgiving ground. She wondered what she would be doing right then if the dead had never gotten back up. Would she still be delivering babies, and raising two kids she adored, or would child services have taken them away, seeing an immature twenty four year old not the right person to watch over them. And another upsetting thought hit her…she would have probably never met him.

Even through the cloud of excruciating pain she was in, she still couldn't help but be glad it happened. In a sick way the apocalypse gave her a better life than her past one. Hell, it gave her and her boys an actual family.

Her eyelids slid closed and a melancholy smile slowly grew on her face. At least she made it as far as she did.

_Sorry boys… Sorry Daryl._

_  
_ **Twelve days before the outbreak**

_I swear to god I'm gonna kill those boys._

She silently snarled as she juggled holding seven bags of groceries and trying to open the apartment door in front of her at the same time. If only the two gremlins would actually help for once she would already be inside.

She blew a strand of hazel hair that had escaped her ponytail out of her face, proceeding to finally get the key in the hole and turn it. The sight she was met with when she entered didn't surprise her in the slightest.

Two boys the ages of eleven and ten were seated on the leather sofa in the middle of the room, the older having curly brown hair and missing his two top front teeth from a hockey accident in the past, the younger with shorter, darker hair and a smattering of freckles, both were in the midst of an intense game of Halo. She let out a sigh as she trudged her way into the kitchen to put away the goods.

" **Hey Nye.** " The boys both said at the same time, and in the same monotone voice. Nye looked up at the two in exasperation and continued putting things away.

The older suddenly jumped up off the couch yelling "Yes! Take that, asshole!"

Nye whipped around "Mason! what did I say about swearing?"

Mason stopped jumping on the couch and turned to face her, leaning over the back of it as the other boy covered him in the game "I was talking to a different player, not Toby." He cleared up.

Nye nodded slowly, smiling softly in fond exasperation.

"Oh, well in that case have at it." Upon hearing her words he turned back, already lost in the game once more. She snorted as they both started yelling nonsense and franticly pushed buttons as an intense battle seemed to start.

"What do you boys want for dinner?" She asked over her shoulder, and "PIZZA!" was shouted right back at her, which she was grateful for after the day she had.

  
  


_"Hey Nye, Mister Owen needs more morphine, poor guy's saying he's gonna keel over" Nye's fellow nurse told her, causing her to sigh. So far she had to deal with one eighty something year old women and her "Business". One little girl with some pretty nasty bruises, that she still didn't believe came from wiping out on a bike, and sixteen total flu patients, Mister Owen being one of them._

_The hospital was in such need of more hands on deck, that they had resorted to recruiting some of the OB nurses. Nye included._

_She made her way down to his room and her green eyes roved over the deathly pale middle aged man wearing thin framed glasses, and a bushy greying mustache. He was one of her better patients in terms of cooperation, and Nye liked him for his sense of humor, as it was the same immature and morbid kind she usually employed._

_"Hello there Bruce, how you feeling?" She asked in an obviously faux chipper voice, knowing he'd rather that than a soothing one._

_"About as good as I loo-" His sentence was interrupted by a violent coughing fit, and to Nye's horror, as he pulled his hand away it was revealed to be drenched in blood._

_They both stood in silence, not sure what was happening and why it seemed to be effecting people at random._

_"Well-" He cleared his voice, trying to hide the waver in it. "That's not a good sign, is it." He said in a way that it was stated as more of a fact than a question, and sadly, as the day went on, he, and the rest of the flu patients only continued to get worse._

  
  


Time went by and nothing major seemed to happen for days, excluding all of her patients had succumbed to whatever the hell was going around, and the bodies immediately being taken away by higher ups, who to Nye looked oddly like military officials.

And after that… something happened, and it hit hard.

_"There have been nineteen more reports of attacks in the last few hours-"_

'Click'

_"I'm telling you it's the government man-"_

'Click'

_"Lock your doors, stock up on food and water-"_

'Click'

_"I know what I saw! He was eating a damn dog, when it was still alive-"_

'Click.'

It was like all of a sudden everyone started noticing that something was happening, something huge. More and more patients came in, only not just for this new flu, but for vicious scratches and bite marks as well, and Nye, who had watched pretty much every survival documentary out there, got some serious "End days" vibes. So when a couple days before, Mason and Toby had come home from school and told her about a classmate who had this new flu, that was all it took before she was making them stay home. After that, the news became their most viewed channel. Yet, when the time came… They still weren't ready.

**It happened in August, 2010.**

**The end of the world.**

"Mason get the bags and pack some clothes! Toby, start getting out all the cans of food we have. Go!" Nye yelled as soon as she locked the door behind them. The three of them bolted off in different directions. Frantic, the boys running to do as she instructed.

_How the hell is this actually happening?! Everything was supposed to be fine, I was supposed to just be being my paranoid self, there's no way this is actually happening!_

Her mind flashed back to what they heard on the way home.

  
  


_"How many times do I have to tell you, normal people don't know how many calories are in a Hershey's bar!" She shouted at Mason as they all got in her bright orange Volkswagen type 2 (Or in other words, her hippie van), cheerfully dubbed Pumpkin. They had been getting more cans of food and more jugs of water from one of the smaller and less raided stores nearby._

_"It was just a harmless question, why are you getting so pissed?" He tried defending himself._

_She turned in her seat to stare at him in disbelief, while Toby hung his head._

_"Because when she said she didn't know, you looked her up and down and said "Well you should" I mean what the hell Ace!?"_

_He simply shrugged in a 'What can ya do' fashion, causing her to sigh heavily._

_"That's the ninth time you've done something like this Ace, and I'm talking about this_ month _. Do I need to waste money on some stuck up teacher who makes you learn manners?" She joked as she started the van, making Mason snap his head up and stare at her in horror._

_"You wouldn't." He said in fear._

_"OH, I would." She replied, reveling in the feeling of one of her "Bad Guy" moments, as they didn't happen often._

_"It wouldn't even work!"_

_"We'll see."_

_She cackled as he groaned, and Toby sat back with a smile, glad the heat wasn't on him (As if it ever was)._

_But the lighthearted atmosphere dead quickly as Nye turned on the radio, and instead of their favorite music station playing "I Love Rock 'n Roll" or "Take on Me" they heard a prerecorded clip being played._

**_"Please evacuate at once. This is not a test. There is a safe zone stationed in Atlanta. Please make your way there. Avoid the sick at all costs. Please eva-"_ **

_As it started over Nye quickly shut it off, leaving them all to sit in shock over what they just heard._

_So… She was right._

_While some part of her tried to say "This will all just blow over." She knew. Deep down she knew this was it, there would be no more walking into the apartment after work to see her boys playing Halo or Minecraft, no more going on nice long walks to clear her head, no more going to get ice cream just 'cause._

_She knew that in the future, when looking back on the day it all started, she would look back on this moment, when her boys looked up at her in fear and confusion, when she steeled herself for the first time for what was to come, and when she swore that the two gremlins behind her would make it, even if it took her own life._

_Heh, if you asked her a ten years ago if she would have sacrificed herself without a moments hesitation for someone, she would have said "Hell no, every man for them self." With only_ one _exception._ _But now… Now she had two foster kids who were her whole world._

_And nothing was taking that world away._

Nye came out of her stupor, and quickly did a mental checklist of what they would need, Food, clothes…

And weapons. She didn't care if they were just sick people, she'd seen the damage they could do, and no way was she going to leave her and the boys unprotected.

She nodded to herself and darted into her bedroom, making a be-line for her closet. Quickly changing out of her Batman themed scrubs, and putting on a thin grey sweater and a pair of jeans. Afterwards she reached for the silver safe at the top of the closet, she threw it down on her bed and swiftly opened it, pulling out her silver pistol and many survival knives. She ignored the Harry Potter wand she had once put in there as a joke, and finally grabbed her sheaths.

She got up, slipping one of her knives into a sheath she put on her left side, and did the same on her right hip with the pistol, and because she was paranoid/smart, put a knife in her right boot as well, leaving two large knives and their matching sheaths which would be given to Mason and Toby. As she turned to grab her bags she saw something else in the safe, something she knew she couldn't leave without. So with a despondent sigh she slowly reached in and grabbed it. Turning it over in her hands she felt tears begin to form, ones she had been fighting tooth and nail to keep in after hearing the broadcast.

 _Holy shit, Mom, what am I gonna do?_ She asked herself in her head, and knew there would be no response. There never was.

She took a deep breath and blinked away the tears, No time for that. She leaned down and put the item on her head. Before leaving though, she grabbed three fishing poles that were sitting in her closet, as well as a large tackle box next to them that smelled of the lake. _You never know_. She told herself, hoping she wasn't going over board. But then again… She had a van, so she could throw pretty much anything in with their supplies and I still not cause a dent in the room of the back. With that in mind she grabbed a few more less important things in terms of survival, but still important all the same.

On her way out the door, she remembered something. Opening her bedside table, she grabbed a few pill bottles, stuffing them deep into her bag.

They all made their way back into the living room, Mason with their clothes, Toby with their food, and Nye with weapons, fishing gear and random things like photo albums and the two's favorite items, (A green stuffed dinosaur named Button for Toby and a grey crochet blanket named Manny for Mason) On their way to the door Nye grabbed her car keys on a doughnut keychain, and her inhaler.

"Uh…Now what?" Toby meekly asked, followed by Mason nodding along in question.

She took a deep breath and shifted the newly placed goggles atop her head.

"Now we do what they said…We go to Atlanta."

  
**Two months into the outbreak**

_That son of a bitch is dead!_

That was all that was going through Nye's mind as she ran for her life. It was meant to be an easy run, Glenn did it a hundred times by himself, so it should be even easier with a team, right?

Fuck no, apparently. As everything that could go wrong seemed to happen, God, all she wanted was to help out in a different way than fishing, but of course they had to bring Merle, who at the moment was popping off rounds like ammo wasn't an insanely valuable resource. And it was right after the mystery shooter had stopped as well. She muttered a few more death threats and continued running.

As she made it to the outer door to the building they were hiding out at, she went to swing the door open to bolt inside, but there was one problem. The door wouldn't open.

"Shit, shit shit!" She frantically whisper-yelled, while trying to open the door, but finally stopped when she saw just how close the Walkers were getting.

"Oh no way, no way in hell." She breathed. As she started running around the building, searching for a different way in. It took until Merle finally took a break from shooting for her to finally find a door that opened. She ran through it and quickly slammed the door closed.

"Yeah, take that! No hot meat for you jackasses!" She cheered, riding a raging adrenaline high.

But in all her boasting she didn't notice the three walkers in the room, that were now coming closer, and when she did all she could do was shakily raise her monkey wrench and say,

"Shit."

  
  


Mason lifted his gaze up from the lake, looking over at Toby, who was staring up at the camp.

"When do you think they'll be back?" Toby asked, not bothering to look at Mason as he limply held his own fishing rod.

Mason shrugged, he figured Toby was worried about their guardian, but he was worried too, and didn't have the energy to try and cheer the younger boy up.

The older boy made the decision to pack things up, (Which was a bit because they had knocked the rest of the bait into the water on accident). They ended up catching three decently sized fish, though they didn't know what kind they were, as Nye had only taught them _how_ to fish so far.

They carried their bucket towards Lori, one of the mothers of the kids they would play with. Though they didn't particularly like Lori. After she had seen Nye give the two of them knives, she went and gave a speech to their guardian about how children shouldn't have weapons.

Nye had simply walked away in the middle though, and later on when the boys timidly asked if they shouldn't play with Carl anymore, she told them _"Nah, you two play with whoever, as long as they're in your age range it's fine. Oh, but don't try to play rough with Sophia, got it?"_ They had both nodded and ran off, secretly happy they could still play with Carl.

And they were pretty sure that after Nye started helping with the laundry more, Lori forgave her for her, as Nye put it, "Refusal to deal with bullshit condition", that Lori took as her simply being a bitch.

Amy made it to Lori the same time they did.

"Any luck?" Lori asked, and Amy prompty dumped out a bucket of mushrooms.

"How do we tell if they're poison?" She asked uncertainly, and the boys looked at one another, both thinking the same thing. Nye could tell.

Mason opened his mouth to tell them but Lori spoke before them.

"Uh, there's only one sure way I know of." She said and started brushing dirt off of one of them, leading both boys to roll their eyes. Was Nye really the only one who thought it would be a good idea to read up on what plants and stuff were edible in Georgia? Then again, Nye was already preparing for the apocalypse when they were in diapers.

"Ask Shane when he gets back?" Amy asked as she sat down.

Lori nodded and got up, taking the bucket. "Yeah, you got it."

It was at this point Mason was tired of the two women not noticing their presence.

"We got fish!" Mason yelled, even though they were only a few feet away.

Toby put his face in his hand as Mason startled the two with his outburst, but Lori quickly recovered, and smiled at the two.

"Oh, you two didn't have to do that, we're doing just fine on food, so why don't you go play with Carl, hmm?"

 _And_ , they should have expected that. They both nodded glumly and put their bucket down, the order Nye gave them a few days ago ringing in their heads.

 _"I don't care if she can be a bit overbearing, I want you to treat Lori and everyone else with as much respect as you treat me, okay?"_ They had nodded, but Mason had looked at her with a confused look on his face _"Even the Dixons?"_ Nye had paused, as a silent feud had been going on between the Dixon clan and the Conner clan. She was hesitant, but her conscience finally won out. _"Yes… Even the Dixons."_ Both boys fought the laughs bubbling up, as she had seemed to pout over her last sentence.

Carl smiled at them as they both sat down and started playing with the toy cars he wasn't using. "Kids, I want you to stay where Dale can see you, okay?" Lori told them, having Carl answer with "Yes, Mom." And the boys with "Yes, Ma'am."

And as Dale warned her to not to go too far, both boys looked up at the road, wondering when the group would be back.

Wondering when _Nye_ would be back.

  
  


The Walkers slammed into the glass door without showing any sign of stopping, and they all watched in trepidation, fearing that any second the glass would give way.

And as a walker picked up a stone and slammed it into the door, T-Dog muttered, "Oh God."

They all ran farther back into the store, away from the door.

"What the hell were you doing out there anyway?" Andrea asked the new guy.

"Trying to flag the helicopter." He said, and T-Dog looked at him as if he lost his mind.

"Helicopter? Man, that's crap. Ain't no damn helicopter."

Jacqui piped in "You were chasing a hallucination, imagining things. It happens." And as he tried defending himself Glenn did a headcount, when he came up short of a trademark pair of goggles, he snapped his head towards the group.

"Guys… Where's Nye?" Everyone became deathly silent, looking to one another to see if anyone knew.

"Oh no, no no no, Crap!" Glenn panicked. Andrea tried shushing him, as he started pacing, gripping his head as if in pain "God, this is all my fault, I was put in charge of this run, and now she's gone!" He took a deep breath and turned back to everyone. Rick was about to ask who "Nye" was when Glenn spoke up again. "When was the last time anyone saw her?" And immediately, Andrea paled.

"Shit, I didn't think she meant she was gonna go alone." She said softly.

Glenn stared at her and uncharacteristically demanded "What do you mean? Go where?"

Andrea took a deep breath and said "The building across the street."

Now everyone paled.

"And you're saying she went there, alone!?" T-Dog asked/shouted.

"I didn't think she would go! She just said we might find something useful there." Andrea tried to defend herself.

Glenn looked down, grief already hitting him. Chances were, since they hadn't seen her…

  
  


Nye took a deep breath, as she slowly slumped against the wall, panting and covered in walker blood. She looked down at her left wrist, bearing a thin blue leather watch.

Five minutes. It took her five minutes of dodging and bludgeoning to kill only three of those bastards.

Thankfully it seemed Merle had finally stopped shooting, meaning he either got bored, or someone stepped up to him… Yeah, he got bored.

She took a deep breath and got to her feet, slowly making her way to the door on the other end of the room. Upon opening it however…

"Holy sh-" She clamped a hand over her mouth and stared at the several walkers in the room outside. Okay, so she was staying in there until Glenn or one of the others found her. It sounded like a good plan, once they saw she was gone they would hopefully come look for her, so she would wait it out.

It wasn't good plan.

It all happened in a matter of seconds to her, first she heard a car alarm, then a red sports car drove up to the building they were all hiding in, the sports car was followed by what looked to her like a moving van. Finally, she saw people get in said van, then, they just left.

She gaped as they drove away, without her. She knew realistically it was her fault, and that she should have stayed in the building they were hiding out in, but the thought that the building across the street could be a goldmine was just too tempting, and she _did_ find a few heavy duty box cutters there, so it wasn't a total waste. But she couldn't help but be angry, at herself for being stupid, and at them for leaving her, because now… Mason and Toby would think she left them, just like their family before. And _that's_ what made her panic.

  
  


As Rick clung to his wife and son, he looked up at Shane, intending to thank him, when something caught his eye. Two boys, both around the age of Carl were looking around, looking more panicked by the second, and that's when he remembered, Merle wasn't the only one they left behind. He felt guilt grip him tightly.

She had kids, the woman they left behind, had kids. The younger one was already crying, and the older was frantically shaking his head, as if this was all a nightmare he wanted out of. Glenn walked up to the two, and without saying a word, knelt down and hugged them both, this caused the older to finally let go, and as he sobbed into Glenn's chest everyone seemed to realize who was missing. Amy put a hand over her mouth and Dale looked down, eyes shut. Sophia, whom Nye had watched over multiple times started shaking like a leaf while Carol rubbed her shoulders in an attempt of comfort, even though the woman herself was tearing up.

Unbeknownst to Rick, Nye had staked claim to a spot in a fair few peoples hearts, after watching the kids for Lori, Carol and the Morales', and helping them with their homework. After pitching in by fishing before Shane had even asked. After chatting with Amy about random things like boys and fashion (Though Nye had no real clue about the second one) just to take the girls mind off of what was going on around them.

Nye had made a fair few care, and made a fair few cry as a result.

And that night, as Carl got his father back, two boys thought they lost their only guardian.

  
  


It was a miracle Nye slept at all, all the thoughts of Mason and Toby thinking she was dead kept her awake, but around 2:00 AM she finally lost the fight and fell asleep.

Around midday, Nye was jolted awake at the sound of a door slamming open, followed by hushed voices. She perked up as she heard a familiar voice mutter something.

_Wait, was that-_

She jumped hard a she heard a crossbow being shot.

A wide relieved grin split across her face

The sound of a decayed body hitting the floor made her brave enough to open the door and step out.

She treaded lightly as she saw Glenn, Dixon Junior, T-Dog and someone she didn't recognize.

None of them noticed her approaching presence, and as she opened her mouth to make a retort on how they left her behind (Dramatic entrances always were her favorite) she was interrupted by having to duck, in order to avoid getting skewered.

Everyone stared in shock as she quickly stood back up to her five foot three height, and turned to look behind her. The sight she was met with was one of the drywall behind her, with a crossbow bolt sticking out. It clearly would have been a head shot if she hadn't ducked. She turned back around, holding her hands up in peace.

"The hell, Dixon!?" She shouted shakily.

Daryl lowered his crossbow, shocked that what he assumed was a Walker, was the second person that had been left behind.

Glenn broke out in a huge grin. "Nye! Oh my god, we were so worried, we thought you were-OW!"

But as Glenn had been saying all this, she was making her way toward him, and gave him a solid hit on the arm.

"You assholes left me here! And yeah it's mostly my fault, but seriously!?" She shouted in indignation, the stress having got to her.

Glenn looked down in regret, rubbing the back of his neck.

"Yeah, but we-I'm really sorry."

Damnit, she could never stay mad at him when he looked like that, like a kicked puppy.

She sighed. "Whatever, you're forgiven,"

You might as well have told him the apocalypse was over, he looked so happy.

And then she realized something. "But if you guys thought I was dead then why the hell did you come back? Oh and who's that?" She added as an after thought, pointing at Rick.

"Oh, well that's Rick, Lori's-"

"Dead husband!?" She finished for him and he nodded sheepishly.

"Yeah, that."

"Well damn." Nye said faintly, before spinning on her heel, holding her hand out to Rick. "Pleasure to meet you Sheriff."

Rick's brows furrowed slightly, as he shook her hand. "Pleasure's all mine."

T-Dog cleared his throat uncomfortably. "And we kind of left Merle behind too." He muttered, regret filling his voice. But all Nye could do was stare.

"So let me get this straight." She slowly started. "You left not only me, but Merle?"

All but Daryl (Who was looking rather impatient) nodded, looking guilty.

"Then what the hell are we just standing here for?! Let's go get him!" She definitely wasn't the man's biggest fan, but after spending the night there alone, she was feeling sympathetic for him, knowing that even as tough as the man was, he was probably scared shitless like she had been.

She started running towards a random door.

"Uh… Other way Nye."

"I knew that." She totally didn't.

They all ran up the flight of stairs leading to the roof. T-Dog cut a chain keeping the door closed and Daryl immediately kicked it open, leading Nye to roll her eyes.

_They say I'm the dramatic one._

He shouted Merle's name a few times as they walked through the door. They walked toward were he was meant to be chained, and for an agonizing second they all just stared at the scene in front of them.

She faintly heard Daryl yelling as she stared at the pool of blood, surrounding a severed hand.

As everyone was dazed, she slowly walked up and crouched down near the mess, grimacing at it. Immediately she could see that this wasn't adding up, there should have been large pools of blood, but instead there was just one small one.

_Well, holy shit, the bastard was smart enough to use a tourniquet._

She opened her mouth to tell them as much.

"I wont hesitate, I don't care if every Walker in the city hears it."

She snapped her head up upon hearing that, and was half surprised and half exasperated to see Daryl holding his crossbow to T-Dog and Rick holding his gun to Daryl.

"Okay that's enough assholes. Dixon, you gonna keep pointing that thing at people or are you gonna help find the human dick you call a brother?"

Rick stared at her in slight shock, as Daryl lowered his weapon. While everyone was used to Nye's vocabulary and didn't even blink at her brash way of speaking anymore, Rick was very much not used to it.

Daryl turned to T-Dog. "You got a do-rag or somethin'?" And after taking T-Dog's offered rag, walked up to where Nye was crouched.

She watched with a tight frown as he picked up the hand.

"I guess the saw blade was too dull for the handcuffs."

Nye whistled. "Damn, that bites."

He gave her an unimpressed look, to which she shrugged. It wasn't her fault she had no filter.

After wrapping it up he walked over to Glenn, and much to the man's displeasure, put the hand in the backpack he was wearing.

"Yikes, sorry Glenn." She faintly said, causing him to give her a slight glare, which only made her have to fight off a smile, as an angry Glenn was like an angry puppy, there was just nothing threatening about it.

"I'd bet my last Twinkie he used a tourniquet." Nye piped up as she stood, leading Rick to look at her, nonplussed, as he was still getting used to her immature disposition.

Daryl nodded, and she filed this down as the first time they could agree on something.

"Probably his belt, be much more blood if he didn't." He started following the trail Merle made. Rick nodded to Glenn and T-Dog to follow, as Nye was already making her way over towards him.

They turned a corner and went through a door leading inside, Nye tried to read the sign on it, but it was too faded.

They looked down the staircase they were met with, hoping to see some sign of him. "Merle? You in here?" Daryl yelled as they made their way down.

  
  


Dale decided to walk towards a certain tent before he went to warn people about Jim's behavior.

"Uh, Mason, Toby? How are you, uh…" He called, trailing off, and let out a sigh.

"How are you boys feeling? You need anything? Some food, water…?" He asked, stronger this time.

"We're fine Dale." He heard from Mason, only, his voice was thick with tears, contradicting his statement.

"Oh, boys…" Dale whispered, pained that these two kids had to go through losing a parent all over again. He had hoped he could get them to eat something, but it seemed they weren't ready to leave the tent. He knew that pushing them was the last thing they needed, so he stepped away, hoping he would be able to get them to eat when he planned to try again in a few hours. After a few steps he turned back to the tent one last time.

"Your Mother is one tough cookie, Glenn said they don't know what happened, so she could be just fine. And I have a strong feeling she's still out there, fighting to get back to you two, so I don't want you two to go giving up hope just yet, alright?"

He waited for a response, and when he didn't get one he sighed and started making his way back, but stopped when he faintly heard "Thanks Dale." From Toby.

He smiled lightly, hoping to God that he was right, and that those boys would get to see their mother again.

  
  


Daryl shot down a female Walker, and Rick signaled the other three to come with him into the room. They both looked around one more time to insure that it was Walker free, and as they did Nye walked up to the dead Walker… Well, she supposed it was double-dead now.

"Had enough in him to take out these two sumbitches, one handed." Daryl said, motioning to the dead Walkers they found.

Nye walked away from the four men to search for something else, hopefully something pointing them in the exact direction to which Merle went, and against her will, Toby's voice filled her head.

_"Let's split up and search for clues."_

And God did that hurt. _They probably think I'm dead…_

She shook herself out of it, she would see them again as soon as they found the one handed asshole, and she would greet them with the most dramatic entrance anyone has ever seen.

"Toughest asshole I ever met, my brother." Daryl said as he reloaded his crossbow. "Feed him a hammer, he'd crap out nails."

"Charming." Nye said from the other side of the room.

"Any man can pass out from blood loss, no matter how tough he is." Rick warned him.

Nye nodded in agreement, "Yeah, though, if he still has the tourniquet on, he'll definitely last longer."

They all continued to make their way through the building, following the blood trail.

"Merle!" Was shouted by Daryl, which was immediately followed by Nye whisper-yelling "Dude!" And Rick trying to shush him by saying "We're not alone here, remember?"

"Screw that. He could be bleedin' out, you said so yourself." He retorted, causing Nye to roll her eyes.

They walked up to a stove, and Nye immediately knew what he had done.

"Oh dear lord, the dickwad is definitely in pain town now, if he wasn't before." It was a ridiculous sentence, but add to that the fact her voice came out laced with disgust, it sounded anything but humorous.

Rick picked up what looked like a bacon press, and Glenn looked from the bloody belt on the stove to what the former sheriff was holding.

"What's that burned stuff?"

" **Skin.** " Rick and Nye both said at the same time. "He cauterized his stump." Nye clarified.

Glenn looked away, seemingly sick at the thought of someone having to go that far to survive.

"Told you he was tough. Nobody can kill Merle but Merle." Daryl told Rick in a vindicated manner.

"Don't take that on faith. He's lost a lot of blood." Rick warned him.

"Yeah? Didn't stop him from bustin' out of this death trap." Daryl said as he started to lead them towards a broken window.

"He left the building?" Glenn asked in disbelief. Nye bowed her head and let a deep sigh. In her opinion, they were going through way to much trouble for that sexist bastard.

"Well isn't that great, it'll be like trying to find a needle in a haystack now." Nye said in defeat.

"Yeah, why the hell would he do that?" Glenn nodded to Nye and continued his sentence.

"Why wouldn't he? He's out there alone as far as he knows, doin' what he's gotta do. Survivin'." Daryl barked back.

T-Dog turned to him. "You call that surviving? Just wandering out in the streets, maybe passing out? What are his odds out there?"

Nye snapped her head up to look at T-Dog, fearing he just pissed off the second trigger happy Dixon.

"No worse than bein' handcuffed and left to rot by you sorry pricks." Daryl snapped, seething.

Glenn rubbed his eyes and T-Dog looked down, not sure what to say in his defense, or if he should even try defending himself. Whereas Nye simply crossed her arms and leaned against the wall, waiting to see if things were going to get violent again.

"You couldn't kill him." Daryl got in Rick's face. And Nye leaned forward. "Ain't so worried about some dumb dead bastard."

Rick took a step forward. "How about one thousand dumb dead bastards? Different story?"

And of course Daryl didn't back down. "Why don't you take a tally? Do what you want. I'm gonna go get him."

Daryl started to walk away, only for Rick to put his hand on his chest to try and stop him. "Daryl, wait-"

Daryl backed out of his reach. "Get your hands off me!" Glenn tried shushing them, but it was futile. Nye was off the wall at this point, and while Mason and Toby didn't fight much, she still had enough experience to know how to break one up.

"You can't stop me." Daryl got back in Rick's face, and Nye was preparing to march up to the two men, but luckily Rick started speaking before she had the chance.

"I don't blame you. He's family, I get that. I went through hell to find mine. I know exactly how you feel." It seemed Rick knew exactly what to say, as Daryl took a step back and swallowed thickly.

"He can't get far with that injury. We can help you check a few blocks around but only if we keep a level head." Rick finished.

Everyone was silent, waiting for Daryl's response.

"I could do that." He said softly.

And it was like everyone could breath again, but of course, someone had to ruin it.

T-Dog shook his head. "Only if we get those guns first. I'm not strolling the streets of Atlanta with just my good intentions, okay?

_Damnit! There are guns we have to get too!?_

Nye leaned her head back and let out a groan, causing everyone to look at her questioningly.

She dropped her head back down. "Alright, but we are hurrying our asses up. I'm not spending any more time here than necessary, Ace and Smalls need to know I'm, ya know, alive."

  
  


Mason numbly made his way to the clearing where everyone seemed to be at that moment.

As he made his way closer, he began to hear the conversation going on between Jim and Shane.

"What does it matter? I'm not hurting anyone."

"Yeah, except maybe yourself. It's a hundred degrees today. You can't keep this up."

But Jim just kept digging. "Sure I can. Watch me."

Lori walked up to him now. "Jim, they're not gonna say it so I will. You're scaring people. You're scaring my son, Carol's daughter, Mason too." Mason looked up at her, and gave her a confused look. He wasn't scared of Jim, but he was confused as to what the man was doing.

"They got nothing to be scared of. I mean, what the hell, people? I'm out here by myself. Why don't you all just go and leave me the hell alone?"

At that, Mason turned to leave. All he wanted was to see what was going on and grab some food for himself and for Toby.

But it appeared Shane wasn't done trying. "We think that you need to take a break, okay? Why don't you go and get yourself in the shade? Some food maybe. I'll tell you what maybe in a little bit I'll come out here and help you myself. Jim, just tell me what it's about." Shane tried to bargain. "Why don't you just go ahead and give me that shovel?"

Jim looked up at him. "Or what?"

It appeared things were getting interesting, and not in the good way.

"There is no "or what". I'm asking you. I'm coming to you and I'm asking you, please. I don't want to have to take it from you." Shane tried.

"And if I don't, then what? Then you're gonna beat my face in like Ed Peletier, aren't you?"

Mason blinked in confusion, not knowing about what had happened with Ed.

Jim turned to everyone. "Y'all seen his face, huh? What's left of it." He turned back to Shane. "See, now that's what happens when someone crosses you." Shane looked at him with look in his eyes that sent a chill down Mason's spine.

Mason wasn't sure if he liked Shane. _"You don't always have to like someone to trust them, and you don't always have to trust them to like them."_ Nye's words rang in his head, and it made him realize something else. Mason didn't think he trusted Shane either.

"That was different, Jim." Shane said, glaring at the other man.

Amy piped up "You weren't there. Ed was out of control. He was hurting his wife."

"That is their marriage. That is not his. He is not judge and jury." Jim said to Amy, and glared at Shane. "Who voted you King Boss, huh?"

Shane tried to calm him. "Jim, I'm not here to argue with you, all right?" He took a step towards him. "Just give me the shovel, okay?"

Jim shook his head. "No no no." Jim started muttering, and Mason was actually starting to get scared.

"Just give me the… Jim!"

Jim shoved Shane away and raised the shovel up in an attempt to hit him, only for Shane to tackle him to the ground and pin him.

"Okay, shh shh." Shane tried calming him, and Jim thrashed in his hold.

"You got no right!" He yelled and continued thrashing.

"Stop. Shh." Shane kept saying.

By this point Mason was rooted in place, too stunned by what he was watching to step away. And he couldn't help imagining what Nye would be doing if she were there with him.

"You got no right!"

"Jim, just stop it. Hey hey hey hey."

"Don't!" Everyone watched, not sure what to do as Jim continued thrashing and yelling.

"Jim. Jim, nobody's gonna hurt you. You hear me? Shh. Jim, nobody is gonna hurt you, okay?" Shane tried to reassure him, but Jim's response made everyone's blood run cold.

"That's a lie. That's the biggest lie there is. I told that to my wife and my two boys. I said it a hundred times. It didn't matter. They came out of nowhere. There were dozens of 'em. Just pulled 'em right out of my hands. You know, the only reason I got away was 'cause the dead were too busy eating my family"

Everyone stood in stunned silence. Lori put a hand to her mouth, and Dale looked frozen.

But Mason became pale as a sheet, and finally walked away as everyone else was distracted.

 _There's no way Nye's alive. Not in this world, where everyone gets torn apart._ Mason told himself, feeling completely detached from everything.

He hadn't even realized he made it back to their tent until Toby's voice broke him out of his daze.

"Did you get anything?"

Mason looked at the other boy's face, noting how red and puffy it was, and how he probably looked the same, if not worse.

He simply shook his head and laid back down next to Toby, latching back onto one of Nye's pillows and burying his face back into it.

Comforted only by the smell of peaches and daisies coming off of it.

  
  


"Uh uh, no way in hell Glenn." Nye shook her head violently.

"She's right, you're not doing this alone." Rick backed up the goggle wearing brunette. Which was followed by Daryl's helpful "Even I think it's a bad idea and I don't even like you much."

Glenn sighed and tried defending his plan. "It's a good idea, okay, if you just hear me out. If we go out there in a group, we're slow, drawing attention. If I'm alone, I can move fast. Look." He pointed to a part on the diagram he drew up. "That's the tank, five blocks from where we are now." He pointed to a different part on it. "That's the bag of guns." He then pointed to the last spot. "Here's the alley I dragged you into when we first met. That's where Daryl, Nye and I will go."

" **Why me?** " Both the woman and archer asked at the same time, leading them both to glare at one another.

"Your crossbow is quieter than his gun, and Nye's good with hand to hand."

"You're overselling my skills, Speedy." Nye said anxiously.

"You'll be fine." Glenn assured her, before turning back to Rick. "While Daryl and Nye wait here in the alley, I run up the street, grab the bag."

"You got us elsewhere?" Rick asked, not understanding why they wouldn't all stick together.

"You and T-Dog, right." He pointed down at the map. "You'll be in this alley here."

"Two blocks away? Why?"

"I may not be able to come back the same way. Walkers might cut me off. If that happens, I won't go back to Daryl and Nye. I'll go forward instead, all the way around to that alley where you guys are." He quickly explained. "Which ever direction I go, I got you in both places to cover me. Afterwards, we'll all meet back here."

They all shared the same look of surprise.

"Hey, kid, what'd you do before all this?" Daryl asked.

"Delivered pizzas. Why?" Glenn answered, oblivious to their surprise.

Nye smiled wide. "Well holy shit."

  
  


Daryl loaded his crossbow and Nye adjusted her grip on her large monkey wrench.

As they made their way down the alley Daryl spoke up. "You got some balls for a chinaman."

Nye grimaced in secondhand-shame and groaned "Godamnit Dixon."

Which was followed by Glenn's annoyed "I'm Korean."

Daryl shrugged. "Whatever."

They both hid behind the dumpsters as Glenn ran out to grab the guns.

"What do you think will happen when we try to bring him back?" Nye asked in a conversational tone. Daryl looked at her in confusion in response.

She sighed "Merle, ya know. I just think he won't be too pleased to share a camp with the guy who made him go all '127 Hours' on himself."

Whatever Daryl was going to say in response would forever be a mystery, as some kid came barreling down the alley.

"Whoa, don't shoot me! What do you want?" The kid begged as Daryl pointed his crossbow at him.

"I'm lookin' for my brother. He's hurt real bad. You seen him?" Daryl immediately started questioning the kid.

And of course, because the world loved screwing them over, the kid started yelling.

"Ayudame!"

Nye put her hand up to her head, gripping her hair tightly in stress. "Dude shut the hell up!" She whisper-yelled.

"Shut up! You're gonna bring the geeks down on us. Answer me." Daryl demanded.

Nye looked back and forth from Daryl and the kid, and the entrance Glenn was supposed to come down any second.

"Answer me!"

But it seemed the kid would only yell whatever it was he was yelling, and it was moments like these Nye wished she took Spanish instead of French.

"Ayudame! Ayudame! Ayudame!"

Nye turned around back to the two. "Dixon, shut him the hell up! We're gonna be swarmed by Walkers if he keeps this up!"

And because their luck was so bad, two more people came into the alley.

"Oh son of a-"

The two new men immediately saw her and Daryl as hostiles, and decided to hit first, ask questions later. What happened next was a blur of kicks and punches. And as Nye got hit in the face by one of the two men, she saw Glenn being grabbed by the other.

"That's it. That's the bag, Vato. Take it! Take it!"

"Get off me! Get off me! Daryl! Nye!" Glenn yelled as he was dragged away towards their car.

_Oh hell no._

She ran toward them, but was knocked down violently by the one who had already punched her.

"Come back here, you sumbitches!" Daryl yelled after the men, raising his crossbow.

She was mighty satisfied to see Daryl shoot the one who hit her. It was even better that it hit its mark in the man's ass.

The men drove away with Glenn, leaving the bag of guns behind, and as she slowly sat up, still winded, Daryl ran over and closed the fence gate, so no Walkers could get into the alleyway.

And afterward, he surprisingly turned to her.

"You good?" He asked gruffly.

Her mouth dropped open at that.

"Erm… Yeah." She said slowly.

 _Okay… It seems Dixon Junior isn't as much of an ass as his brother._ She begrudgingly thought to herself.

He nodded, and immediately the anger was back as he turned back to the kid.

"Whoa whoa whoa. Stop it!" She heard Rick yell as Daryl beat up the kid. She looked to see him and T-Dog running up to them.

"I'm gonna kick your nuts up in your throat!"

_Real classy, Dixon._

"Let me go." The kid begged, and if it were any other situation, she would have felt sorry. But this guy's people just took Glenn, their sweet as a lil' cinnamon roll, Glenn.

"Chill out." T-Dog tried to get Daryl to ease up.

"Uh, dude, in case you haven't noticed, _they took Glenn_!" She shouted at T-Dog as she got up.

"That little bastard and his little bastard homie friends. I'm gonna stomp your ass!" Daryl continued raging.

"Guys! Guys! We're cut off!" T-Dog yelled over all the commotion.

Rick quickly took charge. "Get to the lab. Go."

"Come on. Damn, let's go." Daryl drags the kid along as Rick went back and grabbed the bag of guns and the sheriff hat. And they all started running back to the building.

This was in no way how Nye had expected her day to go.


	2. Satan’s yard-sale

"Those men you were with, we need to know where they went." Rick questioned the kid.

"I ain't telling you nothing."

Nye was getting tired of all the questioning that was getting them nowhere. Couldn't she just get back to camp and show her two gremlins she was alive?

"Jesus, man. What the hell happened back there?" T-Dog asked Daryl. Causing Nye to look up in childish indignation for not being the one he asked.

"I told you, this little turd and his douche bag friends came out of nowhere and jumped us." Daryl shot back, tired of repeating himself.

"You're the one who jumped me, puto, screaming about trying to find his brother like it's my damn fault." The kid complained.

Nye had to give him that, Daryl did kind of go in crossbows blazing.

"They took Glenn. Could have taken Merle too." Daryl defended himself.

The kid laughed. "Merle? What kind of hick name is that? I wouldn't name my dog Merle."

"Dude, that's so uncalled for." Nye shook her head.

And it seem Daryl wasn't having it either, as Rick had to hold him back from seriously hurting the kid.

"Damn it, Daryl. Back off. Rick ordered. And it seemed to thankfully work. But Nye caught on quick to what Daryl was doing as he made his way toward one of their bags.

Deciding to piggyback on it, Nye stood and crossed her arms.

"Jeez Dixon I don't know if the kid could _handle_ that." She turned and grinned at the kid. "Pun intended."

The kid looked at her in slight fear and confusion.

Daryl took a second to glare at her, then turned back to the kid. "Wanna see what happened to the last guy that pissed me off?" He walked up to him.

And with that. He plopped Merle's severed hand right in the kid's lap.

"Start with the feet this time." Daryl said over the kid's screams.

Rick held Daryl back, saying nothing about the hand, which to Nye meant he approved.

"The men you were with took our friend. All we want to do is talk to them, see if we can work something out." The former sheriff tried to reason with the kid.

They were silent, waiting for the kid to crack.

And, thankfully, he did.

  
  


"You sure you're up for this?" Rick asked.

"Yeah." T-Dog replied.

"Okay."

Daryl adjusted his grip on the kid. "One wrong move, you get an arrow in the ass. Just so you know."

"And he means it, I mean, he tried to shoot me just a little while ago." Nye smiled serenely at Daryl, and something told her she would have gotten a middle finger in response if his hands weren't full.

"G's gonna take that arrow out of my ass and shove it up yours. Just so you know." The kid sassed back.

"G?" Rick asked.

"Guillermo. He's the man here." The kid clarified.

"Okay then. Let's go see Guillermo." Rick said in an admittedly scary voice.

They walked up to the large building. As they approached, its door opened, followed by an intimidating man walking out.

"You okay, little man?" He asked the kid, and Nye didn't know if she should feel better, or worse, when she heard a bit of worry he tried to mask.

"They're gonna cut off my feet, carnal." The boy yelled.

The man looked a bit surprised. "Cops do that?"

The kid shook his head slightly. "Not him. This redneck puto here. He cut off some dude's hand, man. He showed it to me. I think the puta was in on it"

"Shut up." Daryl muttered, leading Nye to stifle a laugh. She didn't care what the kid called her, the uncomfortable look on Daryl's face made it _so_ worth it.

She quickly sobered up though, as the guy who hit her stepped out, and pointed a gun at Daryl.

"Hey, that's that vato right there, homes. He shot me in the ass with an arrow. What's up, homes, huh?" The guy was clearly pissed.

"Chill, ese, chill. Chill." Guillermo tried calming the one Daryl shot, and turned back to Rick. "This true? He wants Miguelito's feet? That's pretty sick, man."

Nye glanced at Daryl, and as they made eye contact, she could tell they were thinking the same thing,

_The hand thing might have been a bad idea._

"We were hoping more for a calm discussion." Rick tried regaining control.

"That hillbilly and the city girl jump Felipe's little cousin, beats on him, threatens to cut off his feet, Felipe gets an arrow in the ass and you want a calm discussion? You fascinate me." Guillermo said angrily.

"Heat of the moment. Mistakes were made on both sides." Rick defended.

"Who's that dude to you anyway? You don't look related." Guillermo suddenly asked, referring to Glenn.

"He's the Scooby to our Mystery inc." Nye answered before Rick could. Her statement caused everyone in the area to stare at her as if she was nuts.

Which was fair. She kinda was.

Rick cleared his throat, and lightly glared at her. "He's one of our group, more or less. I'm sure you have a few like him."

"You got my brother in there?" Daryl asked, and Nye winced softly, she had totally forgotten Merle was even part of the equation.

"Sorry, we're fresh out of white boys. But I've got an Asian. You interested?" Guillermo asked leadingly.

"I have one of yours, you have one of mine. Sounds like an even trade." Rick bargained. But what the guy said next shocked them.

"Don't sound even to me."

"G. Come on, man." The kid said desperately.

"My people got attacked. Where's the compensation for their pain and suffering? More to the point, where's my bag of guns?"

_Oh this motherfu-_

"Guns?" Rick asked in faux confusion.

"The bag Miguel saw in the street. The bag Felipe and Jorge were going back to get. That bag of guns." He clarified.

"You're mistaken."

"I don't think so."

"About it being yours. It's my bag of guns." Rick carried on as if he hadn't spoken.

"Yeah, finders keepers dude. That's the rule." Nye piped up again, only for Daryl to elbow her, silently telling her to _shut it_.

"The bag was in the street. Anybody could come around and say it was theirs. I'm supposed to take your word? What's to stop my people from unloading on you right here and now and I take what's mine?" Guillermo threatened.

"You could do that. Or not."

Rick gestured toward T-Dog, who at that point had a sniper rifle pointed at Guillermo while atop a nearby rooftop.

He looked up at T-Dog not seeming fazed.

"Oye." And at his command, two guys on their rooftop walked out, with Glenn.

"I see two options. You come back with Miguel and my bag of guns, everybody walks. Or you come back locked and loaded, we'll see which side spills more blood." With that, they all went back inside, taking Glenn with them.  
  


Rick unzipped the bag, and started dividing up the guns.

"Them guns are worth more than gold." Daryl tried to convince him to stop. "Gold won't protect your family or put food on the table. You're gonna give that up for that kid?"

"Yo, dick head! We're talking about Glenn! Of course we're making the trade!" Nye shouted at him, outraged he would suggest leaving him.

"If I knew we'd get Glenn back, I might agree. But you think that vato across the way is just gonna hand him over?" T-Dog asked.

Nye snapped her head to him so fast she thought she might get whiplash.

"T, what the hell?!"

"You calling G a liar?" The kid asked, offended on his leader's behalf.

"Are you a part of this? You want to hold onto your teeth?" Daryl asked the kid, then promptly slapped him on the back of his head.

T-Dog turned to Rick. "Question is, do you trust that man's word?"

Rick opened his mouth to answer, but Daryl interrupted.

"No, question is, what are you willin' to bet on it? Could be more than them guns. Could be your life. Glenn worth that to you?"

Nye nodded surely, clearly willing to fight tooth and nail to get her friend back.

"What life I have, I owe to him. I was nobody to Glenn, just some idiot stuck in a tank. He could have walked away, but he didn't. Neither will I."

She snapped her head toward Rick as her brain caught up to his mouth. "Wait, did you just say tank-"

"So you're gonna hand the guns over?" Daryl asked, skeptically, and Nye glared at him for interrupting her, still curious about the tank.

"I didn't say that. There's nothing keeping you three here. You should get out, head back to camp." Rick nodded to Nye. "And get back to your boys."

And as much as she wanted to. She knew she couldn't leave just yet.

"And tell Lori and Carl what?" She asked.

"Come on, this is nuts. Just do like G says." The kid said from the other side of the room.

They each took a few guns, ignoring the kid's plea.

  
  


"I see my guns but they're not all in the bag."

_Here we go again._

"That's because they're not yours. I thought I mentioned that." Rick shot back.

The guy Daryl shot walked up. "Let's just shoot these fools right now, ese. All right? Unload on their asses, ese."

Guillermo ignored him. "I don't think you fully appreciate the gravity of the situation."

"No, I'm pretty clear." Rick cut the kid free, and he ran back up to his people. "You have your man. I want mine."

"I'm gonna chop up your boy. I'm gonna feed him to my dogs. They're the evilest, nastiest man-eating bitches you ever saw. I picked them up from Satan at a yard sale. I told you how it has to be. Are you woefully deaf?" Guillermo threatened.

_Well it seems I'm not the only one into dramatics._ Nye thought to herself tensely.

"No, my hearing's fine. You said come locked and loaded." Everyone cocked their guns as if it was rehearsed. "Okay then, we're here."

But to everyone's shock, an old woman came through the Vatos' side.

"Felipe! Felipe!"

Nye openly gaped, and instinctively lowered her weapon.

"Abuela, go back with the others, now."

"Get that old lady out of the line of fire!" Daryl shouted, and Nye nodded in agreement.

_Oh, wow, we're on a roll today._

"Abuela, listen to your mijo, okay? This is the not the place for you right now." Guillermo tried getting her to leave.

"Mr. Gilbert is having trouble breathing. He needs his asthma stuff. Carlitos didn't find it. He needs his medicine." The woman continued adamantly.

Guillermo let out a defeated sigh. "Felipe, go take care of it, okay? And take your grandmother with you."

"Abuela! Ven conmigo por favor."

"Who are those men, and little girl?" The woman kindly asked.

Nye scowled, not at the woman but at her own genes, and childhood, for making her the size of a teenage girl who hadn't reached puberty yet. It was only made worse from the fact she knew, Daryl was staring at her now. She refused to look him in the eyes, trying to ignore the weight of his on her.

_At least I've got the chest of a woman, you dick-bag._ She thought smugly. _One you'll never get to see._

The woman walked up to Rick. "Don't you take him."

"Ma'am?" Rick politely asked.

"Felipe's a good boy. He have his trouble but he pull himself together. We need him here."

"Ma'am, I'm not here to arrest your grandson." Rick assured the confused woman.

"Then what do you want him for?" She asked.

"He's helping us find a missing person. Fella named Glenn."

Nye's jaw dropped.

_Rick you beautiful genius!_

"The Asian boy? He's with Mr. Gilbert. Come. Come, I show you." She took Rick's hand. "He needs his medicine."

They walked closer to the Vatos, and Guillermo sighed. "Let 'em pass." At his order his men parted ways.

  
  


"No. Effing. Way."

Nye was the first to say anything since they entered the building. Wait, scratch that, she meant the nursing home.

"All right. All right. Nice and easy. Just breathe. Just breathe. Just let it out. Just breathe. Just relax." Felipe instructed the old man who was struggling to breathe.

Rick looked around at the scene before them. "What the hell is this?"

"An asthma attack. Couldn't get his breath all of a sudden." Glenn told them casually as he stood by the old man, and Nye wondered if he even realized the level of stress he had put them in.

"I thought you were being eaten by dogs, man." T-Dog told him, slightly angry they were worried for nothing.

Glenn nodded down to the floor and they all looked down at the three Chihuahuas in a pink doggy bed.

"Awww. Satan's yard sale my ass." Nye cooed and crouched down, starting to pet them. Causing Daryl to shake his head at her in disbelief.

"Could I have a word with you?" Rick asked Guillermo in a venomous tone.

As soon as they were a short distance away, Rick jumped down the other man's throat. "You're the dumbest son of a bitch I have ever met. We walked in there ready to kill every last one of you." He whisper yelled.

"Well, I'm glad it didn't go down that way."

"If it had, that blood would be on my hands."

"Mine too. We'd have fought back. Wouldn't be the first time we've had to. Protect the food, the medicine what's left of it. These people, the old ones the staff took off, just left 'em here to die. Me and Felipe were the only ones who stayed."

"What are you, doctors? Rick asked.

"Felipe's a nurse a special care provider. Me, I'm the custodian."

"What about the rest of your crew?"

"The Vatos trickle in to check on their parents, their grandparents. They see how things are and most decide to stay. It's a good thing too. We need the muscle. The people we've encountered since things fell apart, the worst kind of plunderers, the kind that take by force."

"That's not who we are." Rick defended

Nye perked up. "Oh, yeah, we don't cut off people's body parts either, it's a long and crappy story on how we got the hand. Total bluff, his idea." Nye looked up at the two from petting the Chihuahuas and pointed at Daryl, to which he replied with flipping her off.

"How was I to know? My people got attacked and you show up with Miguel hostage, appearances."

"Guess the world changed." Rick said, discouraged.

"No. It's the same as it ever was. The weak get taken. So we do what we can here. The Vatos work on those cars, talk about getting the old people out of the city. But most can't even get to the bathroom by themselves, so that's just a dream. Still, it keeps the crew busy, and that's worth something. So we barred all the windows, welded all the doors shut except for one entrance. The Vatos, they go out, scavenge what they can to keep us going. We watch the perimeter night and day and we wait. The people here, they all look to me now. I don't even know why." Guillermo finished with a helpless shrug.

"Because they can." Rick told him, and proceeded to give him his shotgun.

And after splitting the bag fifty fifty, they were on their way.

"Admit it, you only came back to Atlanta for the hat." Glenn teased as they all walked down the street.

"Don't tell anybody." Rick joked back.

Though it seemed Daryl wasn't in the joking mood.

"You've given away half our guns and ammo."

"Not nearly half." Rick defended.

But Daryl continued. "For what? Bunch of old farts who are gonna die off momentarily anyhow? Seriously, how long you think they got?"

"How long do any of us?" Rick retorted.

"Jeez, that's depressing. I've heard cheerier things said by patients who were fatally ill." Nye muttered.

"Patients?" Rick turned his head to ask her as they walked.

"Right, you don't know Nye much, she was a nurse before the fall, and-Oh my God"

Glenn, and everyone else stopped. All but Nye looked terrified.

"Where the hell's our van?" Daryl asked, as if they would know.

"Wait, you lost the van that you drove here in!?" Nye shouted.

"We left it right there. Who would take it?" Glenn asked, sounding frantic.

_Oh Glenn, you pure soul. Gee I wonder who it could have possibly-_

"Merle." Rick hissed.

"I'm gonna deck him in his shit eating face. No one's getting in the way of my revenge, not even you, Dixon Junior." Nye said darkly.

"He's gonna be taking some vengeance back to camp." Daryl warned.

Nye shrugged stiffly, shooting forward into a sprint. "Then we better start running!"

  
  


Mason and Toby slowly walked up to the group surrounding the fire, catching the conversation going on.

"Time, it's important to keep track, isn't it?" Dale proposed. "The days at least. Don't you think, Andrea? Back me up here."

Said blonde held up her hands. remaining silent.

"I like, I like what, um, a father said to son when he gave him a watch that had been handed down through generations. He said, "I give you the mausoleum of all hope and desire, which will fit your individual needs no better than it did mine or my father's before me; I give it to you, not that you may remember time, but that you may forget it for a moment now and then, and not spend all of your breath trying to conquer it.""

Amy shook her head. "You are so weird."

Everyone laughed and the boys sat down beside Dale.

"I don't know. I liked it." Toby said, causing Dale to smile.

"Well thank you Toby" Dale gave a pat on Toby's head and turned back to Amy. "It's not me. It's Faulkner. William Faulkner. Maybe my bad paraphrasing." Dale told her.

She nodded, and started to get up.

"Where are you going?" Andrea quickly asked her.

"I have to pee. Jeez, you try to be discreet around here." Amy sighed and everyone laughed once more. Even Mason and Toby were able to crack small smiles.

Everything was fine one second, then the next thing they knew…

"We're out of toilet paper?" Amy asked, and out of nowhere a Walker stumbled out from behind.

And bit her.

"Mom!"

"Carl!"

"Lori, get him down!" Shane shouted over everyone's screaming, and began shooting the Walkers that came out of nowhere.

  
  


"I spy, something… Green."

"I swear to God Nye, if it's a another tree again I'm gonna-"

Glenn was cut off as they started to hear gunshots and screaming coming from the direction of camp.

"Oh my God." Rick whispered.

"Go! Go!" Glenn yelled and ran ahead.

"Ace, Smalls!" It was like a switch was flipped, and all her childlike playfulness died. Nye darted after him, intent on getting to her boys.

  
  


Dale was doing his best to protect the two boys next to him. But being only one man, it was no surprise there were close calls.

"Dale!" Mason screamed as a Walker lunged at him.

Dale could only turn his head, busy with the four in front of him.

The Walker grabbed hold of Mason's shoulders, and leaned in.

Both boys were frozen in fear. They all watched in what felt like slow motion, as the Walker opened its mouth, leaned in, and-

**Bang**

The Walker (Now with a gaping hole in its head) dropped, leaving a clear view of what stood behind it.

The person panted and lowered the shotgun, staring at the boys with wide, tear filled eyes.

"If you don't get in that Winnebago, you both are grounded 'til the end of the apocalypse!" Her voice cracked, and she sounded on the verge of a panic attack.

Both boys sagged in relief.

" **Nye!** "

They both bolted towards her, only for her to point violently at the RV.

"Now!"

Right, they were in a life or death situation. Priorities.

So, even though all three of them wanted nothing more then to run to each other and hug until the sun came up, Nye needed to be able to fight without worrying about them.

And as they ran to the RV, Nye watched intently to insure their safety. But, in her protective haze, she didn't notice the Walker coming up from behind.

She did however, notice the _swish_ and _thunk_.

She spun around, and to her shock she was met with Daryl, lowering his crossbow from its position pointed at her, for the second time that day, and a very dead, and very close Walker on the ground.

All she could manage in response was a nod, which he returned.

And as everything calmed down, they all turned to the dying Amy and weeping Andrea.

"Amy. I don't know what to do, Amy. Oh, Amy. Oh no no. Amy! Amy! Amy!"

Nye swallowed thickly as she witnessed Amy take her last breath. And then it hit her.

_This is the first death I've seen, and I bet it won't be my last._

Mason and Toby took the lack of gunshots and screaming as a sign they could leave the RV.

Nye, seeing their approach, crouched down on her knees and took the force of both of their bodies tackling her.

"The hell happened to your face?" Mason asked between wet hiccups.

Oh, right, she somehow totally forgot the fact she was decked in the face earlier.

She lightly licked her split lip. "Doesn't matter." She whispered.

She could feel their shaking shoulders and nuzzled her head into them. And despite the chaos around them, it was the most content she felt in a long time.

Over her shoulder, both boys looked up at Daryl, who, unknown to Nye, had been watching the reunion incase any Walkers decided to get up and take them unawares. Both boys smiled widely at him, having seen him take down the Walker that had been going after Nye. Toby mouthed "Thank you" to which Mason nodded along.

Daryl shuffled his feet and nodded to the two, not sure how to take the appreciation.

Jim's voice, low and dark, got everyone's attention.

"I remember my dream now, why I dug the holes."

No body slept that night.


	3. Take on me

"Boys, I've told you a million times. Get back in the RV." Nye held on to both Mason's and Toby's shoulders as she walked them back to the vehicle.

"But Nye, we can help-" Toby argued, peering back at her as they dragged their feet.

"No, no way in hell am I letting either of you help _drag bodies_."

As they got closer to the RV they saw Lori crouched down next to the corpse of Amy, and her grieving sister, trying her best to get through to Andrea.

"I'm so sorry. She's gone." The brunette spoke softly. "You got to let us take her. We all cared about her and I promise we'll be as gentle as we can." Lori tried to convince her. But it didn't work, nothing seemed to.

At the depressing sight, Nye sighed, crouching down and turning the boys to face her.

"Look, I get it, you wanna help. But even though I let you two have knives, and trust you enough to make your own decisions, I'm not letting you two help with the bodies. I mean, why do you even want to in the first place?" She asked.

Both looked down, seemingly embarrassed. She glanced back and forth between the two, and realization quickly took hold of her expression.

"Oh. I get it, it's because I was gone, wasn't it?" Nye asked softly, guilt eating her up.

Both nodded sadly, and Toby sniffled back tears. "Not just gone. You were _dead_."

She winced, once again beating herself up for getting left behind and putting her kids through that. "Guys…" She took a deep breath and lifted both their heads to look at her. "I promise the second we're done, I'll spend as much time with you as you want, okay?"

Both boys slowly grinned, and Mason started to open his mouth to speak, when they heard a gun being cocked.

"I know how the safety works." Andrea had her gun pointed at Rick, and Nye slowly got in front of her boys.

"Ace, Smalls, last time, get in the RV."

They didn't argue this time, they merely ran into the Winnebago. But Nye could see them peek out one of the windows, their curiosity never sated.

Nye took a deep breath as Rick backed away, and once Andrea put the gun down, Nye turned around and got back to work. The severely psychologically damaging work.

Everyone spent a good part of the morning hauling bodies. And everyone was content on simply keeping a close eye on Andrea and the late Amy. All except one very vocally opposed person.

"Y'all can't be serious. Lettin' that girl hamstring us? The dead girl's a _time bomb_." Daryl argued with the circle of people watching over the two. Rick, Shane, Lori, Nye, and Daryl himself.

"We're keeping an eye on them, just let her grieve man." Nye told him in a tired and subdued voice, as none of them got any sleep, for obvious reasons.

"What do you suggest?" Rick asked.

Nye turned and glared at him for humoring the redneck.

"Take the shot. Clean, in the brain from here. Hell, I can hit a turkey between the eyes from this distance." Daryl answered like it was obvious.

"Oh sure, go ahead and try it, I'd love to see the outcome to that, seeing as how Andrea knows how the safety works now." Nye said to him scathingly.

"No. For God's sakes, let her be." Lori told them firmly, rubbing her dry and tired eyes.

Daryl scoffed and walked away. And Nye patted Rick on the shoulder, going off in her own direction.

She soon found a few bodies that needed moving, so she leaned down and grabbed one of the deceased body's legs. She panted and tried moving what looked like a six foot tall, middle aged man, who thankfully was an old Walker, so she didn't have to drag along someone she knew.

As she pulled she felt some of the weight be lifted, she looked up, expecting Glenn or T-Dog, but was instead greeted with Dale.

Nye smiled at the sight of the older man. "Hey, I've been meaning to thank you for protecting Ace and-" She started.

"Don't, there's no need to thank me, I care about those boys an awful lot. And besides, if you hadn't showed up when you did, things would have been a lot worse." Dale told her, eyes lowered at the thought of letting the kids and their foster mother down in such a way.

Nye nodded and sighed softly, trying to seem nonchalant with her struggle to breath at the moment. "Well still, thanks."

He smiled at her, and she smiled softly back, but it quickly fell off her face as she heard yelling.

"I'll check it out." She quickly assured him, setting down the Walker's legs and jogging over to the other side of camp. When she reached it, she started hearing the argument going on more clearly.

"Y'all left my brother for dead. You had this comin'!"

"Damnit Dixon" She said under her breath, and started biting her split lip. She made her way to them, about to chew out Daryl, when Jacqui shouted something that made her freeze in her tracks.

"A Walker got him. A Walker bit Jim!"

Everyone simultaneously looked at Jim, air heavy with over half a dozen sets of eyes all locked on him.

"I'm okay. I'm okay." Jim started muttering, backing away from them fearfully, hands coming up defensively.

"Guys, just hang on- _Guys_!" Nye tried getting everyone to stop, seeing it was terrifying the man.

"Show it to us. Show it to us." Daryl made his way closer to him.

"Dixon back off, everyone just back off!" She moved closer to Jim, and put her arms up in front of them both.

But Jim had other plans. He picked up a shovel from the ground as a weapon and held it up threateningly. Tension was rising and everyone started talking at once, their voices blurring together, and the only thing left understandable in the mess was the strong tone of fear and distrust.

Nye glanced back, panting as she tried getting him to focus on her, not the people circling with weapons. "Jim, calm down, no one's gonna-"

"Easy, Jim."

"Grab him!"

"Jim, put it down. Put it down!"

Everyone was surrounding them, either in an attempt at comfort, or control. Some of the camp hung in the back, like Glenn and Dale, who didn't know how to stop this without things getting physical.

"I'm okay." Jim continued to mutter, now more to himself than them.

T-Dog ran up from behind and grabbed him, hooking his arms under Jim's. Daryl then ran over, taking Nye's wrist and pulling her away. Moving in front of the trembling man, Daryl lifted up his bloody shirt.

Nye sucked in a deep breath at what was underneath, a hand flying up to her mouth. An angry, red, oozing bite mark stared back at them, sitting above Jim's left hip.

"I'm okay. I'm okay. I'm okay. I'm okay."

T-Dog let go, and he and Daryl quickly stepped away from him as he repeated those two words, over and over.

"I'm okay. I'm okay. I'm okay. I'm okay." He panted, and Nye put both hands up to her mouth, trying to process what was happening.

"I'm okay." Jim smiled through quaking lips.

  
  


"I say we put a pickaxe in his head and the dead girl's and be done with it." Daryl growled, arms crossed as they were back to having this conversation.

"Well, I don't think we care much for your ideas." Nye hissed at him.

Shane shook his head at the two. "Is that what you'd want if it were you?" He challenged Daryl with doubt.

Daryl turned to him, taking a step closer, getting in Shane's face. "Yeah, and I'd thank you while you did it."

Nye quickly raised her hand. "I volunteer!"

Rick sighed through his nose, reaching over and pushing Nye's hand down while Daryl glared at her.

"I hate to say it, I never thought I would, but maybe Daryl's right." Dale voiced himself lowly, causing Nye to gape at him, aghast.

"Dale!" Nye gasped, mouth falling and hanging open in shock.

"Jim's not a monster, Dale, or some rabid dog." Rick defended, shaking his head.

Dale waved his hands, trying to backtrack. "I'm not suggesting-"

"He's sick. A sick man. We start down that road, where do we draw the line?" Rick asked, cutting him off.

"The line's pretty clear. Zero tolerance for Walkers, or them to be." Daryl snapped angrily.

"What if we can get him help? I heard the CDC was working on a cure." Rick tried arguing, grasping at straws in hopes of some saving grace.

"Yeah, and we were teased with a Batman v Superman movie from I Am Legend, but these things are pipe dreams, nine times out of ten." Nye unhelpfully added.

Shane shot her a contemptuous look, and went about ignoring her. "I heard that too. Heard a lot of things before the world went to hell."

"What if the CDC is still up and running?" Rick proposed, turning his head to Nye, now knowing she was a medical professional, and having some hope that she would have heard something.

Shane shook his head, giving his friend a skeptical look. "Man, that is a stretch right there."

"Why? If there's any government left, any structure at all, they'd protect the CDC at all costs, wouldn't they? I think it's our best shot. Shelter, protection," Rick went on to list, making the dangers almost sound worth it.

Blocking out the cops fight over the plan, Nye watched Daryl as the two argued, watching how he slowly grew more tense and agitated, and knowing it was any second till he burst.

"Okay, Rick, you want those things, all right? I do too, okay? Now if they exist, they're at the army base. Fort Benning." Shane gave his own valid reasons in favor of his plan.

"That's a hundred miles in the opposite direction." Lori added quietly, giving both him and Rick an apologetic frown.

Shane nodded agreeingly, lowering his volume at the reminder of Lori's presence. "That is right. But it's away from the hot zone. Now listen to me. If that place is operational, it'll be heavily armed. We'd be _safe_ there."

Nye sighed, and rubbed her temple, asking herself how these two grown men were fighting more than her boys.

"The military were on the front lines of this thing. They got overrun. We've all seen that. The CDC is our best choice and Jim's only chance." Rick concluded his speech, clearly dead set on helping Jim, despite the odds stacked against them.

Spitting a curse under his breath, Daryl leaned off of the RV. Nye watched in trepidation as Daryl looked over at Jim, turning to face where the man sat in the shade.

"You go lookin' for aspirin, do what you need to do." He said, and suddenly ran over to Jim, with a raised pickaxe.

Nye was moving before she could think on it.

"Someone needs to have some balls to take care of this damn problem!" Daryl shouted as he got ready to put the man down.

But as he went to swing, Nye slipped past him and jumped in the way, arms crossed and raised over her head, glaring at him like he was no better than a Walker. His swing faltered, and she could see the shocked look on his face for only a second, before Rick put his pistol to Daryl's head.

"Hey hey hey! We don't kill the living." Rick yelled at him darkly, huffing from the sprint he took to make it.

Nye let out a breath she hadn't realized she was holding, letting her arms drop limply. Her head ducked, and she put a hand to her heart, wincing at the speed it was racing.

"That's funny comin' from a man who just put a gun to my head." Daryl snarled back, slowly lowering his pickaxe despite the venom he and Rick were trading between each other through their heavy scowls.

Nye internally shrugged as she processed his clever retort. That was a good point.

"We may disagree on some things, not on this. You put it down. Go on." Shane nodded to the pickaxe.

And Nye couldn't help but roll her eyes as he put it down in a way a child having a silent tantrum would. He stomped away, shaking his head and refusing to look back at them as he left to do God knows what.

Nye and Rick walked over to Jim, slow and weaponless.

"Come with me." Rick asked the man, gently nodding for him to get up.

"Where are you taking me?" Jim fidgeted nervously, left hand held against his side to apply pressure to the bite.

"Don't you worry Jimbo, it's somewhere safe." Nye gave him her hand.

  
  


Nye gently picked up one of the smaller women in their camp, who unfortunately died in the mayhem. She was carrying her to the bury pile, noting that she either didn't have any family and friends here, or they all met the same fate as she did, as no one seemed to be mourning the young looking woman. And as Nye set her down gently, making sure to close the woman's eyes in some small attempt at making her seem at peace, the thing they were fearing finally happened.

Amy started moving.

And everyone started to slowly make their way towards Andrea.

"Amy." Andrea whispered, and stroked Amy's face lovingly, staring into the girl's, now milky white, eyes.

But, no, that's not right. It's not Amy anymore. Amy died the night before, taken too suddenly to do anything but watch her bleed out.

Nye noticed other people coming out of their tents, silent and keeping a distance from Andrea after how she pulled her gun onto Rick, unflinching.

"Amy, I'm sorry." Andrea cried, caressing the Walker's face, once belonging to her sister.

Nye sucked in a deep breath as the Walker reached up, and touched Andrea's face. She wasn't the only one to stiffen and wait, ready to launch into action in an instant to save Andrea.

"I'm sorry for not ever being there. I always thought there'd be more time. I'm here now, Amy. I'm here. I love you." Andrea smiled down at Amy, tears rolling down her face.

Nye jumped violently as Andrea pulled the trigger, almost lazily, killing the Walker once known as Amy. Nye took a shaking breath as it started hitting her all at once. And before she knew it, she was sprinting.

As she made it to her orange van, she opened the drivers side door and hopped in, scooting across the custom white leather seats and slamming the door behind her. This is the apocalypse, of course people are going to die, she shouldn't be surprised by now. Everyone had an expiration date, some sooner than others.

She didn't know why she thought it would, but that thought was supposed to help, and of course, it didn't. It made it worse. _So_ much worse. Because next time it could be Mason or Toby, or one of the other kids.

_Oh god, Amy was a kid._

And as she swung her door open, and leaned out, losing the contents of her stomach, Nye was glad there was no one around to see her.

  
  


"Say it." Rick commanded Shane as they dug graves for their dead.

Shane sighed, slamming his shovel into the dirt and staring hard at Rick. "Okay. I'm thinking if you'd of stayed here, if you'd have looked after your own, Instead you went off. You took half our manpower with you. I'm thinking maybe our losses wouldn't have been so bad." Shane scolded, pulling no punches.

"If we hadn't gone off and brought those guns back when we did, I think our losses would have been a lot worse." Rick rebutted. "Maybe the entire camp. And-and what about Nye? We didn't bring Merle back, but we found _her_ , and if we hadn't gone back, _those boys_ ," Rick pointed back to camp. "Would have lost their mother for real."

Shane shook his head at him, as a truck pulled up. Daryl got out, not sparing the men a glance as he helped Glenn unload bodies.

"I still think it's a mistake not burning these bodies. It's what we said we'd do, right? Burn 'em all, wasn't that the idea?" He maintained over his shoulder at them.

Shane clenched his jaw. "At first."

Daryl scoffs "The Chinaman gets all emotional, says it's not the thing to do, we just follow him along? These people need to know who the hell's in charge here, what the rules are."

"There are no rules." Rick emphasized, shoveling more dirt and swiping his arm across his forehead, brushing away the sweat dripping there.

"Well, that's a problem. We haven't had one minute to hold onto anything of our old selves. We need time to mourn and we need to bury our dead. It's what people do." Lori insisted as she came up from the camp, frowning down at all the bodies.

  
  


"Nye!"

She snapped her head up, drying her tears hurriedly. "Smalls? What's wrong?" She quickly yelled as he approached, grabbing his arms and checking him over carefully.

"The uh, the…" He shuffled his feet, looking down.

"Toby? What is it?" She was starting to panic now.

"The funeral… it's starting." He softly warned her, toying with the hem of his shirt.

Nye deflated, sagging with a sigh of relief. Rubbing his arms comfortingly, she nodded. "Okay. Let's find your brother."

After they got Mason from the RV, they linked hands and trudged up the hill, none of them particularly eager to get there and see just how many graves had to be made. Nevertheless, they got there, left to stand around the makeshift graves. It was made worse when Andrea insisted that she had to be the one to bury Amy, struggling with the limp body.

Dale moved to help her, but Andrea snapped at him, and anyone else about to offer assistance.

"I can do it. I can do it. I can do it!" She yelled, then sniffled quietly. "...I can do it."

Nye had to quickly blink away the tears upon witnessing Andrea break down. She started rubbing Mason's right shoulder, and Toby's left as they both buried their heads in her sides. This wasn't supposed to happen. None of this was. But it did, and they were left with the mess.

  
  


"Are we leaving or not? Maybe y'all just want to stay here. We could hang some more tin cans."

Nye listened with half a ear as their plan was being discussed between their two leaders.

"Got any threes?" Mason asked her intensely, leaning in to stare into her face.

"Hmm? Oh, uh, lemme check." Nye looked down at her cards, and saw a three. She smirked.

"Go fish."

Both boys glanced at each other, and looked at her through squinted eyes, not believing she was telling the truth. And for good reason, as she liked making Go Fish more like Poker. In layman's terms, she liked to cheat.

Rick and Shane left where they were discussing things in the middle of their game, letting Nye's sole focus fall on Mason and Toby. She looked back up at the boys from her cards, noting they were now whispering back and forth about something. Which was probably a discussion on whether they thought if she was cheating or not. After a few rounds, all ending in one of the boys winning (She may cheat, but she's not a monster) Rick and Shane came back and got everyone together to tell them their plan.

"I've been, uh I've been thinking about Rick's plan. Now look, there are no- _there are_ _no_ guarantees either way. I'll be the first one to admit that. I've known this man a long time. I trust his instincts. I say the most important thing here is we need to stay together. So those of you that agree, we leave first thing in the morning." Shane declared, hands on his hips.

Nye turned the boys around and crouched down. "Guys, I need you to pack all your stuff, okay? And I need you to be as brave about this as you can, okay?"

Both boys nodded, though they both looked shaky as well. And who could blame them, they had been here in this camp since pretty much the beginning.

"Are we gonna find somewhere safe?" Mason mumbled, worrying his lip.

"That's the plan honey." Nye soothed, giving a kiss to his curls, then slipped one to Toby. "Go" She turned them around, giving them a light push. She didn't take her eyes off of them until they climbed into the back of Pumpkin.

That night, Nye, Mason and Toby all slept in the obnoxiously orange van. They had put up their tent, because Nye didn't want them sleeping outside after what happened, just in case.

In the morning light, everyone was standing around in a semicircle, listening as the two camp leaders walked them through how they were going to make the long trip.

"Everybody listen up. Those of you with C.B.s, we're gonna be on channel 40. Let's keep the chatter down, okay? Now you got a problem, don't have a C.B, can't get a signal or anything at all, you're gonna hit your horn one time. That'll stop the caravan. Any questions?" Shane held his hands out with his palms facing up, waiting and open to anything they camp may ask.

Nye was glad she had a C.B hooked up, as honking sounded like a good way to attract Walkers.

Morales stepped forward, glancing back to his family, his wife giving him a sturdy nod. "We're, uh… W-we're not going."

Nye's face fell. She had been waiting for someone to announce they weren't going, she had just been hoping it would be Daryl.

"We have family in Birmingham. We want to be with our people." Miranda explained.

"You go on your own, you won't have anyone to watch your back." Shane tried convincing them to stay.

"We'll take the chance. I got to do what's best for my family." Morales defended, taking Miranda into his arms.

"You sure?" Rick questioned, unsure of the family's odds of survival out there.

"We talked about it. We're sure." Morales nodded.

Rick and Shane handed over a gun and some ammo to Morales. Daryl scoffed, leading to Nye flipping him off. They all said their goodbyes, struggling with seeing even more of the camp leave.

"Come here." Lori ordered Miranda tearfully, and hugged her.

"Good luck, man."

"Appreciate it."

"Yeah. Bye. Thank you. Bye."

Nye walked up to Morales and gave him a quick, bone crushing hug.

"You keep that family of yours safe, okay?" She said, her voice muffled into his shoulder.

"Right back at you Goggle Head." Morales teased.

Nye let go of him and leaned her head back, groaning. "Damnit! I thought you forgot about that stupid nickname. It's _so_ bad!" She stepped away from them after hugging Miranda and the kids, and finally lost the battle and teared up a bit when Eliza gave Sophia her doll.

Nye watched as Mason and Toby hugged the Morales kids goodbye, and as they walked back to her she grabbed them in a hug, ruffling Toby's hair, knowing he was hurting especially, as he had gotten pretty close to Louis.

"Channel 40 if you change your minds. All right?"

"Yeah."

They all watched as the Morales family left, their car kicking up dust as the drove away. Eliza and Louis stuck their heads out their windows, waving goodbye one last time before the car turned down the road, disappearing from sight.

"What makes you think our odds are any better?" Shane whispered to Rick, then turned to everyone, switching back to leader mode.

"Come on. Let's go. Let's move out."

Sitting in the back, Mason behind the passenger seat, and Toby behind Nye, the older of the two was seriously contemplating something of extreme importance.

"Queen! No, no wait-"

"For the love of god! Just pick something!" Toby yelled at Mason, clearly in a bad mood after the departure of the Morales family.

Nye rolled her eyes, reaching down into a small fabric box sitting by the center console, and simply put in the first cassette her hand touched. As the opening to 'Take On Me' started playing, they all grinned and fell silent, patiently waiting for their cue.

" _Talking away, I don't know what I'm to say, I'll say it anyway! Today's another day to find you, shying away, I'll be coming for your love, okay~?_ "

They all started belting out the lyrics, and if you thought they couldn't get any louder or in sync, you'd be wrong. Especially as the next part started.

" _Take on me -Take on me- Take me on -Take on me- I'll be gone, In a day or two~!_ "

It was the little things that helped distract from the new, broken world.

  
  


"I told you we'd never get far on that hose. I said I needed the one from the cube van." Dale told them in irritation, taking his hat off and wiping his glistening forehead.

"Can you jury-rig it?" Rick asked the older man hopefully.

"Heh, yeah, no." Nye shook her head, staring down at the innards of the front.

Dale agreed, gesturing to the handful of old balled up duct tape Nye pulled out. "That's all it's been so far. It's more duct tape than hose. And I'm out of duct tape."

Shane walked up to them, face set it his usual sour glare, thankfully it wasn't directed at a specific person this time. "I see something up ahead. A gas station, if we're lucky."

Jacqui stepped out of the RV, swallowing nervously. "Y'all… Jim. It's bad. I don't think he can take anymore."

"Hey, Rick, you want to hold down the fort? I'll drive ahead, see what I can bring back." Shane suggested, already moving back to his jeep.

"Yeah, I'll come along too, I'll back you up." T-Dog stepped up, jogging over and jumping into the passenger seat.

As Shane left with T-Dog, Nye walked back to her van, seeing both boys leaning over the front bench-like seat to see what was going on. She peeked her head through the open passenger side window.

"We might be here for awhile."

Both boys sighed.

  
  


Were they unable to receive good news?

"It's what he says he wants." Rick softly informed them, standing in the door of the RV, just finished talking with Jim.

Nye held her temple. "And he's not, ya know, out of it?" She asked, even knowing the CDC was a long shot in terms of saving Jim, she still had hope, that was now vanishing fast.

"He seems to be lucid. I would say yes." Rick nodded.

Dale stepped forward. "Back in the camp when I said Daryl might be right and you shut me down, you misunderstood. I would never go along with callously killing a man. I was just gonna suggest that we ask Jim what _he_ wants. And I think we have an answer."

"We just leave him here? We take off? Man, I'm not sure I could live with that." Shane cautioned, he and T-Dog just having gotten back.

"It's not your call, either one of you." Lori reminded them, saddened by this, but supportive of the man's choice.

"Yeah, I mean I hate this, but Jim's his own dude, he deserves the right to make this decision." Nye commented in a depressed tone.

It was settled. Rick and Shane got Jim, carrying him to a tree, gently setting him down to rest against it. At least the area was beautiful, full of greenery and birds chirping high up in the trees. It would be a nice place, for it to happen.

"Yeah. That's it." Rick grunted, he and Shane trying not to jostle the man as he was being settled.

Jim groaned and started breathing heavily, his face pale and waxy as he sweated wet patches through his clothes.

"Hey, another damn tree." He said, breathlessly and chuckled, referencing something only a few of the camp could pick upon.

"Hey, Jim I mean, you know it doesn't need to be this." Shane tried persuading the man, looking bothered and even concerned for once.

"No. It's good... The breeze feels nice." Jim closed his eyes, breathing slowly evening out from his previous pained rasps.

"Okay. All right." Shane relented, backing away and giving him space.

"Just close your eyes, sweetie. Don't fight." Jacqui consoled him, gently brushing away his sweat slicked hair..

"Jim, do you want this?" Rick asked him, offering his gun to the man, housing a single bullet at the moment.

Jim limply shook his head, trying to wave Rick off, but unable to move his hand. "No. You'll need it. I'm okay... I'm okay."

After that, everyone took turns saying goodbye.

"I'd uh, hug you but… Ya know." Nye muttered, fearful of causing him any pain. The sentiment made Jim smile faintly. She cleared her throat. "Well, uh, thanks. For everything." And with that she nodded and gave him a mock salute.

Before she could walk away, he called to her. "Protect those boys of yours… N'matter what..." He slurred, cracking his eyes open enough to stare back at her.

"Always." Nye nodded, and as soon as her back was turned she let the tears fall. Walking up to her boys, who were crying like her, she hugged them to her front, tipping her head down to give a kiss on the crowns of their heads. As she looked up, she accidentally locked eyes with Daryl, momentarily surprised by catching him looking in hers and her boys' direction.

And in an act that caught them both off guard, she nodded to him.

And something even more surprising, he nodded back.

It wasn't a simple nod, it held an understanding, a truce, for now. To make sure nothing happened to anyone else, like it had to Jim.

  
  


"All right, everybody. Keep moving. Go on. Stay quiet. Let's go." Shane urgedin a whisper.

"Okay, keep moving. Stay together." Rick joined in Shane encouragement, leading the way. They were almost there, about to be on the doorstep of the CDC.

Nye kept a tight hold of Toby's hand, who was holding tightly to Mason's. While in her other hand she held her pistol in a white knuckle grip, raised and sweeping to each body they passed. "Keep your heads down, _do not look up_." She hissed at them, not wanting them to see the carnage surrounding them.

"Oh god." Glenn gasped beside her, his free hand pressed to his mouth, horrified by all the bodies around them.

"Eyes front, breath through mouth, keep moving." She stressed to him as she came up beside him, thinking Glenn losing his lunch was one of the last things they needed at the moment.

"Keep moving. Come on."

"Shh."

"Shh. _Oh, God_."

"Keep it together. Come on." Shane hissed.

"We're almost there, baby. Almost there." Lori rubbed Carl's shoulders, the boy looked around with wide eyes, seeming to be stunned by all the bodies.

They made it to the entrance to the building. But there was a problem that quickly became apparent. It was locked, with no sign of a way to break in, the door solid metal, and towering above them. There wasn't even an obvious handle anywhere.

"Nothing?" Shane spat quietly, standing next to Rick at the entrance, and proceeded to bang on the door.

"There's nobody here." T-Dog lamented in defeat.

"Then why are these shutters down?" Rick pointed out, flicking his gun to the windows, all barricaded by metal shutters.

By the back of the group, Daryl heard something, turning around he shouted a warning. "Walkers!"

Behind them a good number of the undead had appeared, either stray ones lured by their scent, or ones from the ground, getting up as they heard the group pass. Daryl shot one down with his crossbow, and immediately rounded angrily on Rick.

"You led us into a graveyard!" He snapped in Rick's face.

Shane shoved him back. "He made a call."

"It was the wrong damn call!"

"Just shut up. You hear? Shut up. _Shut up!_ "

And as Daryl was arguing with Shane, he didn't see the Walker on the ground near his feet, opening its eyes and dragging them over to the redneck's leg, just within its reach. _He_ didn't see it, but Nye did.

Another shot rang, coinciding with the ones T-Dog and Glenn were firing to keep the Walkers back. The Walker at his feet went still, its head exploding in blood and grey matter. Nye was sure she only got such a clean headshot because of its proximity. Daryl jerked at the sudden appearance of blood on his pants, and spun around, staring at the smoking pistol in the brunette's hands.

"We're even." Nye panted, eyes wide and face pale at the horrific sight. It was like a meat water balloon popped, close enough that she saw everything, and could even feel a few droplets of blood splattered on her face.

He opened his mouth to say something, until he saw the dozen Walkers behind the group making their way closer.

Nye looked back too, and passed Mason and Toby over to Dale. "Watch them." Nye told him with force, and got a nod in return.

She turned around back to the Walkers, and started shooting. None of the shots were as precise or lethal as the one she just pulled off, but she was slowing them down at least. Nye could only vaguely hear Rick and everyone arguing behind her, not paying them any mind. Until she heard Rick shout something back at Shane, looking up at the door.

"The camera, it moved!"

She shared a confused look with Daryl, neither knowing whether they should trust the former sheriff's deputy or not. Maybe he had lost it, or, maybe he really was onto something.

"You imagined it."

"It moved. _It moved_."

"Rick, it is dead, man. It's an automated device. It's gears, okay? They're just winding down. Now come on." Shane yelled, pulling his friend away from the door. "Man, just listen to me. Look around this place. It's dead, okay? It's dead. You need to let it go, Rick. Rick, _there's nobody here!_ "

People were getting even more panicked as the Walkers closed in, snapping their jaws and snarling at the fresh meal in front of them. Nye glanced back at her boys, taking in their terrified expressions, her stomach filling up with dread.

"I know you're in there! I know you can hear me!" Rick wrestled out of Shane's hold, glaring up at the camera desperately.

Lori and Shane tried to move him away, to no avail. And Shane turned back to the group in defeat. "Everybody get back to the cars now!"

But Rick wasn't giving up. "Please, we're desperate! Please help us! We have women, children, no food, hardly any gas left!"

"Rick. There's nobody here!" Lori pleaded with her husband.

"We have nowhere else to go!" He argued, pounding on the door. "Keep your eyes open!" He demanded to the person behind the camera. "If you don't let us in, you're killing us! _Please_!" Rick's voice cracked.

"Come on, buddy, let's go. Let's go." Shane pulled him away, holding strong enough he couldn't break away this time.

They started moving back to the cars, knowing the Walkers in their way could very well be the last things they see, all while Rick screamed out at the camera.

"Please help us. You're killing us! You're killing us! _You're killing us!_ "

And to Nye, and everyone else' shock, there was a sharp hiss, as they were suddenly bathed in blinding light.

The door opened.


	4. Counting down

Nye cautiously followed Rick and Shane's lead, not dropping her weapon for a second. She could hear the group follow behind them, and felt Mason and Toby grip the back of her shirt tightly, huddled hiding behind her.

"Daryl, you cover the back." Shane ordered in a whisper.

Daryl nodded, slipping away from where he walked by Nye, falling behind to do as Shane said, for once without putting up a fight.

"Hello?" Rick called out, voice echoing off of the metal walls and twenty foot tall ceiling. "Hello?"

Nye took a deep shuddering breath, feeling the adrenaline fading slightly as they stopped in the middle of the enormous room.

"Hello?"

Nye, along with everyone else, tensed and readied their weapons as they heard a gun being cocked. When Nye saw the person behind it, she blinked in confusion. The man wasn't what she was expecting in the slightest, she had thought it would be some army general, decked out in camo. Instead, it was just some scared guy in a white T-shirt and sweatpants, who looked just as on guard as the groups was.

"Anybody infected?" He blurted cautiously, machine gun twitching upwards in preparation for an unfortunate answer.

Nye looked down, once again hit with guilt over Jim.

"One of our group was… he didn't make it." Rick recounted to the man, lowering his gun a few inches.

"Why are you here? What do you want?" The man demanded, sounding even more nervous.

"A chance." Rick said in a hush, his voice steady and firm.

"That's asking an awful lot these days." The man told them, taking a few steps forward.

Rick nodded his head. "I know."

It was silent for a moment, and Nye took the opportunity to reach back with her free hand. Both boys grasped her offered hand tightly, Toby taking her palm, while Mason clung to her wrist.

The man scanned the group, his eyes falling on the four children hidden behind their respective parents. "You all submit to a blood test. That's the price of admission."

Nye deflated in relief, letting a tiny smile grace her lips. She looked back, offering Mason and Toby a comforting nod for reassurance.

"We can do that." Rick nodded, smiling as he lowered his gun completely.

As the man dropped his weapon, so did Nye and the rest. Daryl and Shane hesitated, but put theirs down reluctantly.

"You got stuff to bring in, you do it now. Once this door closes, it stays closed." The man warned them. At his command, a few of them left to get everything.

"Stay here. Don't argue." Nye rushed to tell the boys, giving them a tense look as they started to open their mouths in protest.

"I'll watch them." Dale assured her.

She nodded and darted outside with Rick, Shane, Glenn and Daryl. Quickly opening the back door to her van, and grabbing their bags (And making sure she got Button and Manny) Nye took the moment of privacy to open a nearly empty pill bottle, popping two in her mouth, and tucking the bottle safely in her pocket once done. She was thankful most pharmacies had iron supplements on the shelves, free to raid once things fell apart, otherwise she would have already been out by now.

They ran back in just as fast, and if they weren't stressed beyond belief, she would have been insanely impressed with the speed they achieved.

"Vi, seal the main entrance. Kill the power up here." The man spoke into a panel near the door. And Nye watched as metal walls came down, blocking up the entrance.

"Rick Grimes." Rick offered his hand.

The man stared at it, taking a breath, the. Rick's hand. "Dr. Edwin Jenner."

  
  


Nye bobbed her head lightly, thinking to herself that there should be elevator music playing. She stood between Glenn and Daryl, with the boys leaning against her front. The group was packed into an industrial elevator, crammed like sardines.

"Doctors always go around packin' heat like that?" Daryl insinuated, suspicious of the machine gun being in possession of Jenner.

"There were plenty left lying around. I familiarized myself." Jenner looked around them. "But you look harmless enough." His eyes settled on the three boys. "Except you three. I'll have to keep my eye on you." He gave them faux looks of suspicion, causing the boys to smile, which both Nye and Lori appreciated.

As they made their way to, what Nye assumed was the communications room, she felt Mason's hand shaking in hers. The fear of what was coming soon was setting in for him.

"You're gonna be okay." She reassured him bracingly.

Something he was teased relentlessly about by Toby, was his crippling fear of needles. Nye was sure Mason would sooner have Jenner slice him open for blood, than suffer through being pierced by a needle.

"Are we underground?" Carol murmured timidly, eyes flickering around from the walls to the ceiling. The elevator had been going down for a while.

"Are you claustrophobic?" Jenner questioned, peering back at her.

Nye was, she was just better at hiding it. Her trick was pretending there was always a way out, even if it wasn't true.

"A little."

"Try not to think about it."

"Sure thing Doc." Nye muttered sarcastically, only Daryl and the boys hearing her, as they walked in the back.

They headed into a large, dark room. It was so quiet you could hear a pin drop.

"Vi, bring up the lights in the big room." Jenner bellowed, causing the room to whir to life with lights and a few monitors.

Nye looked around in shock at the room before them, it looked like every room in sci-fi movies taking place in the future.

"Welcome to Zone 5."

"Where is everybody?" Rick looked to Jenner, and that was when Nye remembered that there was supposed to be more people.

"The other doctors, the staff?" Rick continued when Jenner didn't answer, sounding more urgent now.

"I'm it…. It's just me here."

Nye's heart sank. Andrea stumbled next to her, and Nye quickly grabbed her arm to steady her.

"What about the person you were speaking with? Vi?" Lori recalled, holding onto hope.

Jenner sighed softly, turning to the largest monitor in the room. "Vi, say hello to our guests. Tell them… Welcome."

Nye jumped as a robotic voice echoed loudly out of the speakers and off the metal walls..

" _Hello, guests. Welcome._ "

"I'm all that's left." Jenner whispered apologetically, watching the group sadly as they all exchanged looks of disappointment. "I'm sorry." He said, sincerely.

  
  


Nye could tell they were probably in the infirmary before the lights went on, able to pick upon the smell of soap and into septics. Sure enough, when the room became visible, she could see the counters covered in medical supplies. Jenner didn't bother with small talk as he started collecting the blood samples from them. Rick volunteered to go first, which Shane then piggybacked on right away.

Once it was his turn, Mason shook as Jenner got the needle ready. The only thing keeping him in place was both of Nye's hands on his shoulders.

"He okay?" Daryl quietly asked Toby, wondering why the kid was fidgeting so much.

"Yeah, he's just terrified of needles. Nye helps though." Toby explained.

After Jenner was finished with a very pale Mason, he quickly did Nye, who had been helping with the blood drawing (and took a little too much pleasure in sticking Daryl with a needle) She always made sure to offer her left arm when getting blood drawn, never her right.

Next up was Andrea.

"What's the point? If we were infected, we'd all be running a fever." Andrea asked incredulously as Nye took off the rubber armband on the blonde.

"I've already broken every rule in the book letting you in here. Let me just at least be thorough." Jenner capped the last syringe. "All done."

As Andrea got up, she stumbled, Jacqui and Nye quickly caught her.

"Are you okay?" Jenner blinked, taken by surprise.

Andrea nodded and brushed off Jenner's look of concern. Jacqui turned to Jenner with a resigned frown.

"She hasn't eaten in days. None of us have."

Jenner leaned back in his chair, looking around the room with a frown of his own, then without warning, got up.

"Follow me."

  
  


"I'm telling you! Space is the freaky-est thing ever!" A tipsy Nye argued with Mason and Toby, standing halfway up in her chair.

" **No it's not!** " Both of them yelled, followed by Mason shouting "You're delusional!"

"Wait, you think space is scarier than a walker?" T-Dog joined the debate, staring at Nye like she was insane.

" _Yes_! God, that scene in Deep Impact, where the one astronaut gets his cord cut, or something, and he floats out into space, gave me nightmares for weeks!"

" **Spoilers**!" Both boys jokingly yelled. Breaking off into giggles, Toby struggled to stop water from shooting out his nose.

"You've already seen it, you gremlins!"

The group were all learning Nye was a loud drunk.

As everyone was laughing at the three of them, Dale turned to Rick and Lori with a small smirk. "You know, in Italy, children have a little bit of wine with dinner. And in France."

Nye leaned forward in her chair, nearly falling off in the process. Her goggles were slowly slipping down her forehead, but she didn't seem to notice.

"Well, when Carl is in Italy or France, he can have some then." Lori responded primly, sipping her wine.

"Boo!" Nye groaned, getting backed up by Mason. Toby calmly sipped his water, enjoying the show.

And it seemed Rick was in a jovial mood. "What's it gonna hurt? Come on. _Come on._ "

"C'mon Lori!" Nye egged on with a grin.

Everyone cheered as she relented, and Dale poured some red wine into Carl's glass, then looked to Nye questioningly.

Everyone was now watching her in anticipation, waiting for the go ahead.

She turned to the boys. "You wanna try some?"

Mason nodded eagerly, and Toby shrugged.

Nye turned to Dale, handing him the boys' cups. "Well then, go for it."

"There you are, young lads." Dale chuckled, handing them back, both with about an inch of wine filling the bottom.

Everyone waited in rapt attention, and Nye noticed even Daryl lean forward as all three of the boys lifted the glasses to their mouths.

"Eww!"

"Blegh!"

" _Holy shit!_ "

They all had varying different degrees of disgust in their reactions, and everyone was laughing once more.

"Mason!" Nye chastened in between giggles, losing it as he stuffed a napkin in his mouth to try to ward off the taste.

"That's my boy. That's my boy. Good boy." Lori comforted Carl by gently petting his hair down, while Nye just gave Mason and Toby a noogie each over the table.

"Yuck. That tastes nasty." Carl grimaced.

"Damn right it does! Not as bad as whiskey though." Mason noted, looking down at his glass like he was considering trying it again..

"You've had whiskey?!" Glenn shouted in shock, and quickly looked at Nye for the story.

The brunette froze, blinking owlishly. "Uh, I uh…"

"It was before Nye was fostering me though!" Mason quickly amended.

"Fostering?" Daryl lowered his drink, which happened to be an entire bottle of wine that he kept to himself.

"Yeah, Nye's our foster mom." Toby stated with a shrug.

"Wait, you didn't _know_?" Glenn asked in surprise, having thought it had gotten around to everyone, except maybe Rick.

"Nah, I didn't." The hunter mumbled, lifting the bottle back to his mouth.

What Nye didn't see was Daryl looking at her like he'd never seen her before, as she smiled happily while she joked with her kids.

Shane nudged Carl as the boy still cringed at the taste of the wine. "Well, just stick to soda pop there, bud."

And just like that, the topic of fostering was dropped.

"Not you, Glenn." Daryl commanded, pointing at him across the table.

Glenn looked up in confusion. "What?"

"Keep drinkin', little man. I want to see how red your face can get."

"Ooh, I second that!" Nye quickly shouted, not caring that she was backing Daryl in her tipsy state.

Rick tapped his glass, and stood. "It seems to me we haven't thanked our host properly."

T-Dog raised his glass. "He is more than just our host."

"Hear hear!"

"Here's to you, doc."

"Booyah!"

Nye laughed uproariously at Daryl's shout, she and the boys quickly followed along. " **Booyah**!"

"Thank you!"

But, of course, there always had to be something to kill the mood. Or in this case, some _one_.

"So when are you gonna tell us what the hell happened here, doc?"

Nye stopped cold, looking at Shane in disbelief.

"All the uh, the other doctors that were supposed to be figuring out what happened, where are they?" Shane continued, eyes hauntingly dark.

"We're celebrating, Shane. Don't need to do this now." Rick tried stopping him, voice low in warning.

Shane got defensive. "Whoa, wait a second. This is why we're here, right? This was _your_ move. Supposed to find all the answers. Instead we," He chuckled. "We found _him_. Found one man. _Why_?"

Nye frowned, brows furrowing together as she stared down at the tablecloth. _Why_ was _it only Jenner?_

Jenner, sitting at the table next to theirs, fidgeted with an empty bottle, not meeting anyone in the eye. "Well, when things got bad, a lot of people just left. Went off to be with their families. And when things got worse, when the military cordon got overrun, the rest bolted." Jenner slowly told them, and Nye got a bad feeling that this story wasn't gonna have a happy ending.

"Every last one?" Shane scoffed, disbelieving.

"No, many couldn't face walking out the door." Jenner paused. "They… opted out."

Nye shut her eyes tightly. There it was.

"There was a rash of suicides. That was a bad time." Jenner clarified when he got blank looks from the more inebriated group members.

"You didn't leave. Why?" Andrea questioned, speaking for probably only the second time that night.

"I just kept working. Hoping… to do some good."

Everything was silent as they soaked it all in. Until Glenn sighed and shook his head at Shane.

"Dude, you are such a buzzkill, man."

Nye nodded, pouring herself another full glass of wine. "Yeah dude, not cool." She muttered bitterly.

After dinner, Jenner was leading them all down a long corridor, gesturing to rooms as he passed.

"Most of the facility is powered down including housing, so you'll have to make do here." Jenner said, leading them through the halls. "The couches are comfortable, but there are cots in storage if you like. There's a rec room down the hall that you kids might enjoy." He turned to the four kids. "Just don't plug in the video games, okay? Or anything that draws power. The same applies If you shower, go easy on the hot water."

Nye froze, a huge grin splitting her face.

"Hot water?" Glenn whispered through a breath to T-Dog and Nye, awe in his voice.

"That's what the man said." T-Dog grinned, and the two men bolted to find their own rooms.

Nye followed them, and raced past Mason and Toby. "I call top bunk!"

"Ah, no fair!" Mason argued, running after her.

"Guys! There might not even be bunk beds! _Guys_!" Toby yelled, chasing them both.

Her head start paid off, as Nye was able to slip into the bathroom first, locking the door behind her as Mason got to it right after, banging on it and calling her a cheater.

Nye grinned as the water hit her, thinking about how much she hated the cliché of putting your face under the jet of water. Never had she even heard about someone doing that in reality. She tried it once, only to feel like she was drowning, leading her to freak out and slip, falling to the tiled floor painfully.

She listened to the boy's pillow fight in the other room (More accurately, Mason attacking Toby with extreme prejudice) And, for a moment, she pretended everything was fine, pretended they were just on a road trip like their first summer with Toby, pretended they would be getting back to school in a few days, pretended they could walk outside and see the world as it used to be.

And as she sank to the floor, she pretended she wasn't crying.

  
  


Nye turned over, stuffing her face in her pillow, trying to fall back asleep. But two gremlins killed that dream.

"Nye. Nye. Nye. _Nye wake up!_ _The apartments on fire!_ "

Both boys sat back as the last one did the trick.

"Wha, I'll kill it wit ma bare han's!" She loudly slurred, as she pushed herself up off of her front, scanning the room through a curtain of bed head.

Toby shook his head and stared at her incredulously. "What? We said _fire_ , Nye."

"Oh." She let her arms give out, and landed back on the couch, face squished against the cushion. Mason grabbed her arms and pulled her off the couch before she could fall back asleep.

"C'mon, T made breakfast." Toby rolled her onto her back, and took her ankles.

They had to drag her all the way into the hallway, getting baffled stares from Carol and Andrea, before she finally hoisted herself up, and sluggishly followed them into the eating area.

Both boy's ran ahead of her, taking the plates T-Dog offered them. Nye tiredly sat down, nodding to everyone in greeting. Rick walked in, looking clean, shaved, and well rested.

"Hello."

"Morning."

"Howdy Sheriff."

"Are you hungover?" Carl asked, fighting a grin. "Mom said you'd be."

"Mom is right." Rick informed his son, fighting his own smile as he sat down next to him and Lori.

"Mom has that annoying habit." Lori joked with a smirk.

"I think it's a trait all moms have." Nye commented, grinning at Lori and Carol as the short haired woman walked into the room.

"Eggs. Powdered, but, but I do 'em good. I bet you can't tell." T-Dog set two plates down, one for Nye and the other for Glenn, causing him to groan into the table, the thought of food turning his stomach.

Nye, of course, wouldn't waste this opportunity. "You alright there Glenn?!" She shouted, right in his ear.

He jerked violently, glaring up at her with red eyes. "You. Are. The. _Worst_." He growled at her, and went back to groaning.

T-Dog put some eggs on his plate. "Protein helps the hangover."

"Really? Why?" Mason asked with eggs still in his mouth, turning to look at Nye, who was stuffing her face.

She looked up at him, then glanced around the room before shrugging. "Why the hell should I know?" She mumbled through a mouth full of eggs.

"You're a nurse, that's why." Toby deadpanned.

She just shrugged, and went back to eating ravenously.

"Where'd all this come from?" Rick inquired as he struggled to open a salt shaker.

"Jenner. He thought we could use it." Lori told him as she took and opened the shaker for him.

Nye turned to the boys suddenly with an idea. "We haven't seen the rec room yet."

She didn't notice Lori tense up.

"How 'bout we check it out after we eat. I bet there's board games."

Both boy's eagerly nodded. Mason dove into his eggs with the intent of clearing his plate in record time. Toby side-eyed his brother, scooting his plate farther away from Mason's, in defense of his meal.

"Don't ever, ever, _ever,_ let me drink again." Glenn whined into the table, then finally came up for air to eat his eggs..

"Aw, but it was so funny when we heard you belting out Eye of the Tiger in your room." Nye chimed in, her voice saccharine sweet.

Shane trudged into the room, tiredly running a hand down his face. As soon as he entered, Lori studiously glowered down at her plate, chewing her eggs with excessive force.

"Hey." Shane announced his presence, eyes trained on Lori as he made a face akin to a guilty pout.

"Hey. Feel as bad as I do?" Rick asked his friend goodnaturedly, unaware of the tension hanging between his wife and best friend.

Shane shook his head with a humored scoff. "Worse."

"The hell happened to you? Your neck?" T-Dog gestured to the four red lines going down the side of the man's neck, causing the others to look up and give him a once over.

"Yikes, that looks like it hurts." Nye muttered, feeling a rare spike of worry for the typically insufferable man.

"I must have done it in my sleep." He shrugged off their concern, refusing to meet any of them in the eyes, for some unknown reason.

"Never seen you do that before." Rick responded to his excuse with doubt, not thinking his friend was capable of doing such damage to himself without waking up, as Shane was always a light sleeper. But Rick couldn't come up with another reason for the scratches being there.

"Me neither. Not like me at all." Shane shrugged, the tone of his voice indicating heavily that he was insinuating something, as he stared intensely at Lori.

"Nye does it all the time." Toby commented nonchalantly, polishing off his eggs.

Mason sat back in his seat, nodding along to what his brother said. "Yeah, one time when we went into the kitchen to get breakfast, her whole right arm was bloody, she completely tore it up-"

A hand was slapped over his mouth before he could continue the story. Nye sheepishly pursed her lips and ignored the curious looks she was being sent. As soon as she let his mouth free, she tugged her right sleeve down, covering her whole hand in an effort to hide her wrist and forearm.

Jenner entered, pausing as he took in the sight of the group filling the communal room, it was almost like he forgot there were people here now. More like, he forgot that he wasn't alone anymore.

"Morning."

"Hey, doc."

"Doctor, I don't mean to slam you with questions first thing ." Dale started, standing up from his chair.

"But you will anyway." Jenner finished for him, as he got his coffee.

"We didn't come here for the eggs." Andrea joked, abandoning her plate of lumpy and dry was only so much T-Dog could do to salvage the breakfast.

While Jenner sighed, stirring his coffee in contemplation, the resident hunter joined, hair and clothes mussed up from sleep. Nye, in an uncharacteristic attempt at peace, handed Daryl a premade plate as he walked by. She chalked it up to being in a good mood after a night of getting drunk and clean, and to her surprise, he took it and nodded in thanks.

Looks like she wasn't the only one to be calmed by the previous night's luxuries.

When they all finished breakfast, Jenner led them back to the room Nye thought was the epitome of sci-fi. She made a mental note to take her kids to the rec room after the doctor was done showing them what it was he had planned.

"Give me playback of TS-19."

" _Playback of TS-19._ "

They watched as images of brain scans came up on the huge monitor, nearly a dozen, all from different angles.

"Few people ever got a chance to see this. Very few." Jenner recounted, never looking away from the scans.

"Is that a brain?" Carl asked quietly, innocently curious.

Jenner's throat bobbed with a thick swallow. "An extraordinary one…" He turned away, blinking his eyes rapidly, like he was fighting tears. "Not that it matters in the end."

Nye frowned at the somber tone of his voice.

"Take us in for E.I.V."

" _Enhanced internal view._ "

The monitor zoomed in on the side view of the brain, getting close enough to show all the colorful pathways that made a person function.

"What are those lights?" Shane crossed his arms, squinting at the detailed scan.

"Synapses." Nye murmured absentmindedly. She didn't notice that Daryl, who was standing beside her, could hear it.

"You know what those are, but you don't know why protein's good for hangovers?" Mason whispered snidely, getting a playful whack on the back of his head in response.

"It's a person's life, experiences, memories. It's everything. Somewhere in all that organic wiring, all those ripples of light, is _you_ , the thing that makes you unique. And human." Jenner explained, better than any teacher had in Nye's experience.

"You don't make sense, ever?" Daryl retorted, leaned against one of the computer stations. Nye rolled her eyes at him, holding back a too easy jab at him.

"Those are synapses, electric impulses in the brain that carry all the messages." Jenner clarified. "They determine everything a person says, does, or thinks, from the moment of birth to the moment of death."

"Death? That's what this is, a vigil?" Rick demanded, stepping forward.

"Yes… Or rather, the playback of the vigil."

Nye sighed deeply, putting both hands on the boys' shoulders and rubbing soothing circles in them, she wasn't sure who it was meant to comfort though. Toby ducked his head into her middle, while Mason focused on the scans, not quite fascinated, but rather caught in morbid curiosity.

"This person died? Who?" Andrea rubbed her hands up and down her upper arms, struck with a sudden chill.

"Test subject 19."

Nye could tell, by the forced monotone of his voice, that it had to be someone who he knew, and maybe even someone who _meant something_ to him.

"Someone who was bitten and infected And volunteered to have us record the process. Vi, scan forward to the first event."

" _Scanning to first event._ "

Now there seemed to be some virus invading the brain, overlapping the once bright and sparking synapses.

"What is that?" Glenn murmured lowly, sounding worried, and rightfully so.

"It looks like meningitis." Nye commented, loud enough to be heard this time.

Jenner nodded at her. "Yes, we thought so too. The adrenal glands hemorrhage, the brain goes into shutdown, then the major organs… Then death." He trailed off, sighing through his nose. "Everything you ever were or ever will be… _Gone_."

Nye knew she had to have been right in her earlier assumption, going by the way the last few words he uttered came out broken. This person, TS-19, was someone important to Jenner, the only question that remained was _who_ they were to him exactly.

All the lights in the brain went out as the virus took over, the head going still, and no longer moving with each struggling breath the unknown subject took to keep going. Mason turned and hugged Nye's middle tightly now, joining Toby as they hid in her embrace. She reached up and threaded her fingers through their hair.

"Is that what happened to Jim?" Sophia quietly asked Carol, holding onto her similarly to how the boys did to Nye.

"Yes." Carol breathed, clinging onto her daughter.

Andrea took a shuddering breath, and tried blinking away her tears, having to avert her eyes from the giant screen. Jenner looked at her, wondering why the scans were having such a profound effect on the blonde

"She lost somebody two days ago. Her sister." Lori quietly told the doctor, and Jenner got an understanding look on his face.

"I lost somebody too. I know how devastating it is." He softly confided in Andrea, putting a hand on her shoulder. He turned back to the monitor, having to finish what he started. "Scan to the second event."

" _Scanning to second event._ "

"The resurrection times vary wildly. We had reports of it happening in as little as three minutes. The longest we heard of was eight hours. In the case of this patient, it was two hours, one minute… seven seconds."

There was a light, starting to flicker in the brain, but this one seemed different than how the old synapses did.

"Holy shit." Nye gasped. It didn't matter that she had seen and killed

Walkers, witnessing it this way still seemed so impossible.

"It restarts the brain?" Lori gaped in disbelief.

"No, just the brain stem. Basically, it gets them up and moving." Jenner continued, voice dull, as if they weren't watching a dead body start moving again.

"But they're not alive?" Rick asked, turning to look at the doctor.

"You tell me." Jenner gestured lazily to the screen.

Rick bit his lip, eyes roving over the mostly dim brain, and shook his head. "It's nothing like before. Most of that brain is dark."

Jenner nodded in confirmation. "Dark, lifeless, dead. The frontal lobe, the neocortex, the _human_ part. That doesn't come back. The _you_ part. Just a shell driven by mindless instinct."

They watched as the body started moving more, mouth falling open and snapping shut. Something came down from the top of the screen, resembling a gun's muzzle, which it turned out to be, as a hole was blown in the head. The body went still again, this time for good.

"God. What was that?" Carol put a hand up to her mouth.

"He shot his patient in the head… Didn't you?" Andrea droned emotionlessly, staring at the back of Jenner's head.

Jenner ignored her question. "Vi, power down the main screen and the workstations."

" _Powering down main screen and workstations._ "

"You have no idea what it is, do you?" Andrea concluded in disappointment.

"It could be microbial, viral, parasitic, fungal."

"Alien tampering." Nye added, half joking.

"Or the wrath of God?" Jacque said seriously, making Nye feel bad for trying to make light.

"There is that." Jenner nodded at Jacque.

"Somebody must know something." Andrea said desperately. "Somebody somewhere."

"There are others, right? Other facilities?" Carol suggested.

"There may be some. People like me."

"But you don't know? How can you not _know_?" Rick demanded.

"Everything went down. Communications, directives all of it. I've been in the dark for almost a month."

Nye hung her head, all the hope of the world being fixed, that she had been keeping in a vice like grip for the last two months, slipped through her fingers like smoke.

"So it's not just here. There's nothing left anywhere? Nothing? That's what you're really saying, right?" Andrea lamented, sounding nearly broken.

Everyone took it all in. Andrea let out a disbelieving laugh, and Jacque whispered, " _Jesus_."

"Man, I'm gonna get shit-faced drunk, again." Daryl muttered, rubbing his palms into his eyes, turning away from the group.

"I'll join you." Nye muttered, once again, only half joking.

"Dr. Jenner, I know this has been taxing for you and I hate to ask one more question, but…"

Nye looked up at Dale, wondering where he was going with this. What else was there left to ask?

"That clock," He pointed up to a digital clock hanging above the entryway. "It's counting down. What happens at zero?"

Nye felt something shift, it was suddenly hard to breathe, and she slowly turned her head away from the clock with only an hour left, to Jenner.

"The… The, basement generators, they run out of fuel." Jenner explained away, rushing his words.

Nye felt bile rise in her throat. She was a movie junkie, she knew a big clock with a countdown was a very bad thing, especially in a place like the CDC.

"And then?" Rick demanded in a hushed yell, clearly getting a bad feeling as well, and when he didn't get an answer, he turned to the monitor. "Vi, what happens when the power runs out?"

" _When the power runs out, facility-wide decontamination will occur._ "

  
  


Nye tried to keep from shaking as she, Mason and Toby played monopoly in the rec room, keeping their focus on that instead of the looming feeling of dread hanging over them all. But the clock counting down set off too many red flags to be ignored easily.

"Boys."

They both looked up, worried from the stiff tone of her voice.

"Yeah, Nye?" Toby murmured worriedly.

"You remember how right before everything fell apart, I grabbed as many canned goods as possible, because I just had a _feeling_."

Both nodded, getting even more worried.

"A feeling things were about to go bad, and everything was about to fall apart." Nye took a shuddering breath, glancing back and forth between Mason and Toby. "I'm having it again."

They looked between her and each other. Toby set down his paper money, forgetting the game in favor of giving Nye all his attention.

Mason had already lost all his play-money, and leaned forward on the table, closer to Nye. "A-are you sure."

Nye frowned, giving a single sturdy nod. "Go pack your bags. _Now_."

They bolted up onto their feet, and out the door, quickly followed by Nye. And as they were shoving everything back in their bags in their room, the lights went out, leaving them to fumble out into the darkened hallway. They saw Jenner stride past them, toward the control room.

"Why is the air off? And the lights in our room?"

"Jenner, what the holy hell is happening?"

"What's goin' on? Why is everythin' turned off?" Daryl demanded as he came out of his room, and Jenner snatched the bottle of wine out of his hands.

"Energy use is being prioritized." Jenner told them plainly, as they started following after him.

"Air isn't a priority? And lights?" Dale stammered incredulously.

"It's not up to me. Zone 5 is shutting itself down."

"Hey! Hey, what the hell does that mean?" Daryl snapped, grabbing Jenner by the lab coat. "Hey man, I'm talkin' to you. What do you mean it's shuttin' itself down? How can a building do anythin'?!"

"You'd be surprised." Jenner replied blandly, ripping himself out of Daryl's grip.

"Rick?" Lori shouted down to the other half of the group, the floor below them, as she spotted them over the metal banister.

They came down the stairs following Jenner, and Rick marched up to the doctor intimidatingly.

"Jenner, what's happening?"

"The system is dropping all the nonessential uses of power. It's designed to keep the computers running to the last possible second. That started as we approached the half-hour mark." Jenner explained, and nodded to the clock Dale had asked about. "Right on schedule." He took a gulp from the bottle of wine and handed it back to Daryl roughly. He suddenly turned to Andrea. "It was the French."

"What?"

"They were the last ones to hold out as far as I know. While our people were bolting out the doors and committing suicide in the hallways, they stayed in the labs till the end. They thought they were close to a solution." Jenner declared, a new energy in him they hadn't seen before, fueled by how quickly the end was approaching.

"What happened?" Jacque asked lowly, fearing the answer.

"The same thing that's happening here. No power grid. Ran out of juice." He shrugged. "The world runs of fossil fuel. I mean, how stupid is that?"

Nye swallowed thickly, tugging on her hair in stress.

And it seemed Shane was done with Jenner, snapping and stomping up to the man. "Let me tell you-"

Rick had to grab him and hold him back. "To hell with it, Shane. I don't even care." He turned to the group. "Lori, grab our things. Everybody, get your stuff. We're getting out of here, now!"

Nye was about to go and help people pack, seeing as how she and the boys were all set, when an alarm went off.

"What's that?" Shane demanded, with Carl echoing his question.

" _30 minutes to decontamination._ "

"Doc, what's going on here?!"

"Jenner?!"

"Everybody, y'all heard Rick. Get your stuff and let's go! Go now! Go!" Shane tried corralling everyone back to their rooms.

"Let's go!"

"Come on!"

And Nye watched in terror as a thick metal door came down, blocking their only exit, and trapping them inside.

"No. Did you just lock us in? He just locked us in!" Glenn yelled, banging on the door.

Nye didn't think she'd ever heard Glenn that panicked, actually, she was surprised she could hear anything over the blood rushing in her ears. She felt frozen, like she couldn't move, the all too familiar feeling of being trapped, with no way out, was suffocating.

"You son of a bitch!"

That snapped her out of it, her head turning to watch Daryl about to make a grave mistake.

"Dixon!" She gasped, rushing over.

"Shane!" Rick shouted urgently.

Nye and Shane both ran to Daryl at the same time, right as Daryl grabbed hold of Jenner and was rearing up to beat the doctor into the ground, maybe even kill him, Shane grabbed him from behind.

"You let us out of here!"

"No, stop. Don't!"

"You lying-"

"Dixon! Kill him and you kill our way out!" Nye shouted at him over the commotion, standing between Daryl and Jenner.

More people came to hold Daryl back, and Nye stepped away a few feet, knowing she logically couldn't help keep him away from Jenner if he got out of Shane and Rick's detainment. She put her hands in her hair, knocking her goggles askew, and she noticed she was hyperventilating for who knows how long.

"Jenner, open that door now!" Rick commanded in a deadly tone.

"There's no point. Everything topside is locked down. The emergency exits are sealed."

"Well, open the damn things!" Dale pleaded desperately, holding Mason and Toby as they ran to him while Nye was occupied.

"That's not something I control. The computers do. I told you, once that front door closed, it wouldn't open again. _You heard me say that_."

Nye felt her eyes sting with tears, as she slowly turned to look at Mason and Toby. They were on either side of Dale, and were staring back at her, panicked even worse than the other night at camp.

Nye didn't see it, but Daryl looked between her and the boys, swelling up with rage, and fighting out of the tight hold Shane had him in. He paced, shooting Jenner a venomous glare.

"It's better this way." Jenner insisted quietly.

"What is? What happens in 28 minutes?" Rick demanded, and Jenner stayed silent. "What happens in 28 minutes?!"

"Come on!"

It seemed Jenner had enough. "You know what this place is?! We protected the public from _very_ _nasty_ _stuff_! Weaponized smallpox! Ebola strains that could wipe out half the _country_! Stuff you don't want getting out! _Ever_!"

Nye felt her whole body tremble, as Jenner went from just a lonely doctor, to someone deranged.

Jenner took a deep breath, and sat down. "In the event of a catastrophic power failure, in a terrorist attack, for example H.I.T.s are deployed to prevent any organisms from getting out."

"H.I.T.s?" Rick asked.

"Vi, define." Jenner sighed exhaustedly.

" _H.I.T.s. High-Impulse Thermobaric fuel-air explosives consists of a two-stage aerosol ignition that produces a blast wave of significantly greater power and duration than any other known explosive except nuclear. The vacuum-pressure effect ignites the oxygen between 5,000Â° and 6,000Â° and is used when the greatest loss of life and damage to structures is desired._ "

Nye let out a sob, feeling two small bodies hitting hers, and latching on for dear life.

"It sets the air on fire."

If it weren't for the crying, you could have heard a pin drop.

"No pain. An end to sorrow, grief… Regret." Jenner whispered wistfully. " _Everything_."

Daryl took one more look at Nye, Mason and Toby, and lost it. He threw the bottle at the door.

"Open the damn door!"

"Out of my way!" Where Shane found axes was unclear, but all that mattered was that he had them. "Daryl!" Shane tossed one to him.

Nye sunk to the ground in between Lori and Carol, gripping the two boys as hard as they were gripping her.

"You should've left well enough alone. It would've been so much easier." Jenner shook his head listlessly.

"Easier for who?" Lori snapped viciously.

"All of you." He implored. "You know what's out there, a short, _brutal_ life and an agonizing death." He turned to Andrea. "Your, your sister what was her name?"

Andrea hung her head. "Amy."

"Amy." He nodded, appearing sympathetic despite their current situation. "You know what this does. You've seen it." Jenner turned to Rick. "Is that really what you want for your wife and son?"

"I don't want _this_!" Rick argued desperately.

Shane gave up on the door, sweating from his fruitless efforts. "Can't make a dent." He told Rick between huffs of breath.

"Those doors are designed to withstand a rocket launcher." Jenner informed them dully.

"Well, your head ain't!" Daryl abandoned the door, running up to Jenner, intending to hit him with the axe.

"Damnit Dixon!"

"Daryl! _Daryl_!"

"Just back up! _Back up_!"

The enraged redneck found himself back in a fight with Shane, trying to get to the doctor while both former cops stopped him.

"You do want this." Jenner said imploringly to Rick, who stood as one of the only two things keeping Daryl from killing him. "Last night, you said you knew it was just a matter of time before everybody you loved was dead."

Nye looked up at Rick in shock.

"What? You really said that? After all your big talk?" Shane demanded, feeling betrayed.

"I had to keep hope alive, didn't I?" Rick tried defending.

"There is no hope. There never was."

"There's always hope. Maybe it won't be you, maybe not here, but somebody somewhere-"

"What part of "everything is gone" do you not understand?" Andrea interrupted.

"Andrea…" Nye whispered, hoping she didn't mean it.

"Listen to your friend. She gets it." Jenner said. "This is what takes us down. This is our extinction event."

"This isn't right. You can't just keep us here." Carol said brokenly.

"One tiny moment, a millisecond. No pain."

"My daughter doesn't deserve to die like this!"

Nye clenched her teeth so hard she thought they may break.

"I always thought it would be my dad, then I thought it would be Walker, I didn't think it would be a crazy doctor in a lab coat that killed me." Toby murmured into Nye's side.

"Well I thought it would be clowns." Mason murmured into her other side, making her let out a tiny, broken laugh through her tears. And that's why she loved them more than anything, they were the bravest kids she'd ever known, and they had the same coping mechanism as she did. Jokes.

"We're not dying here. I promise." Nye swore lowly, chin tucked as she gave them both a kiss on the forehead.

"Wouldn't it be kinder, more compassionate to just hold your loved ones and wait for the clock to run down?" Jenner argued, truly happy to let it all end, for everyone.

Nye snapped her head up at the sound of a shotgun being cocked.

"Shane, no!"

"Out of the way, Rick! Stay out of my way! Open that door or I'm gonna blow your head off. Do you hear me?!" Shane screamed into the doctor's face, jamming the muzzle against his forehead.

"Brother, brother, this is not the way you do this. We will never get out of here." Rick tried stopping him, pulling him away.

"Shane, you listen to him!"

"Shane, he wants to get blown up! That isn't a threat, it's just speeding the process along!" Nye snapped.

"It's too late."

"He dies, we all We all die! Shane! _Shane_!"

Nye quickly covered the boy's ears as Shane started shooting a console, sparks flying in the air as the shotgun did major damage. Rick fought him for the gun, and after getting it, he hit Shane in the face with the back of the handle, knocking him to the ground.

"Are you done now? _Are you done_?" Rick snarled down at him.

"Yeah, I guess we all are." Shane spat viciously.

Rick turned and handed the gun off to T-Dog, taking a moment to look at everyone, before turning back to Jenner.

"I think you're lying."

"What?"

"You're lying about no hope. If that were true, you'd have bolted with the rest or taken the easy way out. You _didn't_. You chose the hard path. Why?" Rick asked insistently.

"It doesn't matter." Jenner evaded, turning his back to the former sheriff.

"It _does_ matter. It _always_ matters. You stayed when others ran. _Why_?"

"Not because I wanted to. I made a promise… To her. My wife."

Nye closed her eyes, and hung her head. "Test subject 19… was your wife" It came out as more of a statement than a question.

"She begged me to keep going as long as I could. How could I say no?" Jenner continued, voice thick with tears.

Daryl started hitting the door again, and if she didn't have two terrified kids to hold tight, Nye would have joined him, even if it didn't do any good.

"She was dying. It should've been me on that table. I wouldn't have mattered to anybody. She was a loss to the world. Hell, she ran this place. I just worked here. In our field, she was an Einstein. Me? I'm just Edwin Jenner. She could've done something about this. Not me."

"Your wife didn't have a choice. You do. That's-that's all we want, a choice, a _chance_." Rick persisted, forcing Jenner to look him in the eyes.

"Let us keep trying as long as we can." Lori added softly, holding Carl.

Nye didn't dare take even a breath, as Jenner looked around at them, seeming to be contemplating.

He took a breath. "I told you topside's locked down. I can't open those." And as he pressed a few buttons, the door opened.

Nye felt like she could breathe again.

"Come on! Let's go!"

Nye practically carried the boys to the door, while they weren't lagging, Nye happened to be one of the groups best runners, ignoring the fact she'd probably need a puff from her inhaler afterwards, so she was quickly over by the door with everyone else.

"Come on, let's go! Come on!"

"Move it! Move it!"

"Come on, let's go!"

"We're gonna get out of here, Sophia."

Nye watched by the doorway, bouncing on the balls of her feet, as Rick and Jenner exchanged words.

"Let's go! Hey, we've got four minutes left! Come on!"

"Let's go. Let's go." T-Dog tried pulling Jacque with him, but she resisted.

"No, no, I'm staying. I'm staying, sweetie."

Some froze at Jacque's words.

"But that's insane!" T-Dog argued, holding her hand and trying to tug her along.

"No, it's completely sane." Jacque smiled, letting go of T-Dog and standing by Jenner. "For the first time in a long time. I'm not ending up like Jim and Amy. There's no time to argue and no point, not if you want to get out. Just get out. Get out."

"T, c'mon!"

"Come on, man. Come on! Let's go! Let's go!"

Dale stayed put, watching Andrea, who hadn't moved, and it made Nye's heart hammer.

"Dale…?"

He looked back at Nye, waving for her to go. "Go, get your boys out." He told her softly. And if it were any other situation, if she didn't have Mason and Toby to think about. Nye would have stayed for Dale.

"C'mon, let's go!" She heard Daryl yell to them.

Nye nodded, and turned, bolting after the others.

They were halfway there when Mason whispered something that made Nye's heart stop.

"Manny."

Nye stopped running, making the two and Daryl look back at her.

"The hell are you doin'? Let's go!"

Nye shook her head gently, looking up at Daryl. "I'll be right behind you, take them and go!"

Mason shook his head frantically. "No! Nye it's not worth it!"

But Nye was already running back. She literally kicked the door open, and scanned the room so fast her head spun. And there it was, sitting innocently on one of the cots. She grabbed it, and bolted back, not even bothering to grab the stuff they hadn't packed yet. By the time she caught up to them, they were on the base level.

"Get them doors open!"

She ran up to Daryl and the boys, panting from the sprint, and as soon as Mason and Toby saw her, they tackled her once more.

"Daryl!" Rick yelled, and tossed him an axe, the two working at breaking the window with them, but it did nothing.

"Daryl, look out!" T-Dog warned and started swinging a metal chair at the glass blocking their exit, not even causing a scratch.

Shane loaded his shotgun. "Dog, get down! Get down!"

He shot it once and there was no visible effect. The glass didn't even crack.

"Jesus."

"The glass won't break?" Sophia asked fearfully.

Carol stepped forward and reached into her bag. "Rick, I have something that might help."

"Carol, I don't think a nail file's gonna do it." Shane barked.

"Fuck off Shane!" Nye snapped in the high tension.

Carol ignored them both. "Your first morning at camp, when I washed your uniform I found this in your pocket." She held out a grenade.

Nye's jaw dropped. "Holy mother of-"

"Come on. Look out!"

Everyone got down as Rick set the grenade, pulling the pin and leaving it laying next to the window.

"Oh sh-"

"Get down! _Get down_!"

Nye crouched over Mason and Toby, and suddenly felt someone crouching over her too.

" _Shit_!"

Nye tensed as an ear splitting boom sounded. All at once they were bolting for the broken window, through the smoke and back out into the Walker infested world. There was a five foot jump from the window to the ground, which wasn't much of a problem for them, as they leapt out in their haste.

Nye jumped down, and turned to catch the boys. Toby was first, then Mason, then they were sprinting back to the van. Rick and Shane, who were ahead of the group, shot any Walkers that were getting too close. And Nye watched with grudging respect, as Daryl cut off a Walker's head in one swing with the axe.

She jumped into her van, and swung the passengers side door open, shouting "Get in!" To Daryl, who's blue pickup was further away. He jumped in and slammed the door. Nye turned back in her seat and checked the boys over.

"Everyone okay?!"

"Look!"

At Toby's yell, Nye looked back out, and sagged in relief upon seeing Dale and Andrea coming out, but then noticed Jacque wasn't with them. And as she saw them hit the ground, she turned to the back of the van.

"Get down!" She screamed.

The blast was so intense, it felt as if the vehicle became an oven, roiling in heat, as the entire van shook from the explosion.

She sat up shakily, and exchanged shocked looks with Daryl, amazed they actually made it.

"What's so special 'bout a blanket?" Daryl suddenly demanded between ragged pants.

Nye let out a shaky laugh. That was the first thing he had to say? "H-his mother made it."

Comprehension bloomed on his face, and he nodded faintly, seeming to think she was less crazy after that.

She leaned back and handed it to Mason. "Don't _ever_ leave this somewhere again."

Mason nodded, clearly too shocked to speak.

She and Daryl exchanged one more lingering look, before he got out, heading for his truck. Seeing the boys were both still shaken up, she started the engine, and pressed play on the cassette player.

" _If today was not a crooked highway, if tonight was not a crooked trail, if tomorrow wasn't such a long time, then lonesome would mean nothing to you at all, yes and only if my own true love was waiting, if I could hear her heart softly pounding, yes and only if she was lying by me~_ "

Nye followed behind the rest of the group, body still holding tension from the intense run for their lives. Glancing back at the boys, she smiled softly.

" _I'd lie, in my bed once again, I can't see my reflection in the water, I can't speak the sounds to show no pain, I can't hear the echo of my footsteps, or remember the sounds of my own name~_ "


	5. Shot

They drove for a couple hours, trying to find a safe place to stop and regain their bearings. When they finally found an abandoned town, most of them got out, and started moving things from their cars. They ditched a couple of them (including Shane's jeep, and Daryl's pickup truck.) The back of Nye's van was filled up with odds and ends from the group, as she now had the most space to carry things, save for the Winnebago.

Nye got back in, slamming the door shut, causing both boys to jolt awake from a quick nap they managed to snag.

"Rise and shine, sleeping beauties." Nye shouted sarcastically.

"What's happenin'?" Mason asked sluggishly, rubbing his eyes.

Nye turned the key, the engine revving back to life as she resumed following the caravan. "Well, the alien's who caused this whole thing showed up, and demanded we take them to our leader." Nye said in a serious tone, and merely received two very unamused looks.

"Tough crowd." She muttered. "Okay, we're heading to Fort Benning."

"Do you even think it'll still be there? It might be like the CDC." Toby suggested glumly.

"We'll just have to see. But, for now, how 'bout some Weird Al?" Nye offered.

Both boys nodded eagerly, and right as Nye went to put it on, the caravan came to a stop.

"The hell…?" She murmured, barking right behind them.

Nye picked up her CB, pressing down on the trigger and holding it to her down turned mouth. "Dale, talk to me, what's happing?"

" _There's a huge jam, Daryl's trying to find a way through_."

"Shit." She groaned, hitting the wide steering wheel.

" _Language_."

Nye rolled her eyes and put down the CB. She turned in her seat, throwing her arm over the back of it and giving her kids a sly grin. "So, while we're waiting, you wanna play eye sp-"

" **No**."

She pouted, pulling her arm back and crossing both of them petulantly. "Your loss."

The caravan started to slowly move again at a snail's pace, and they began weaving through the wreckage. It seemed they might be able to get through it, until, through Nye's open window she heard something that sounded alarmingly like something in the RV blowing up. She watched as the caravan stopped once more.

She sighed deeply, and got out of Pumpkin, quickly followed by Mason and Toby.

"I said it. Didn't I say it? A thousand times. Dead in the water." She heard Dale lamenting, as she and the boys made their way over.

"Problem, Dale?" Shane asked with his hands on his hips.

"Just a small matter of being stuck in the middle of nowhere with no hope of-" Dale looked around at all the cars, fresh for the picking. "Okay, that was dumb."

"If you can't find a radiator hose here…" Shane started.

"There's a whole bunch of stuff we _can_ find." Daryl finished.

Nye grinned, and patted the boys shoulders. "It'll be like a scavenger hunt."

"You've got issues." Toby told her point blank.

"Yeah, and they're called Ace and Smalls." She retorted quickly, ignoring the jab Mason sent into her side.

"I can siphon more fuel from these cars for a start." T-Dog suggested, gesturing to the countless vehicles piled up around them.

"Maybe some water." Carol hopefully suggested.

"Or food." Glenn added, clearly hungry.

Lori spoke next, and gave them all pause. "This is a graveyard… I don't know how I feel about this."

Nye looked down, feeling guilty for her jokes. Sometimes she got away with herself, no filter keeping her from making a jackass of herself.

"Alright, alright, here we go. Come on, y'all. Just look around, gather what you can." T-Dog tried to get things going.

"Okay, stay in my sight, check for Walkers under it before you try looking into cars, and don't check out the ones with bodies inside." Nye told the boys firmly, also making sure they had a weapon on them.

Both nodded, splitting off and started looking, while Nye started digging around in an SUV, and ended up finding gum, sunscreen, and of all things, a condom.

Nye snorted, and went to toss it back in the car, only to stop. She glanced up at Lori, and twirled it in her fingers.

_If my thought-to-be-dead husband showed up, I would definitely be getting busy whenever possible._

Nye nodded to herself, slipping the condom in her pocket, and went back to searching, reminding herself to give it to Lori as soon as possible, and offer to watch Carl whenever they needed.

She made her way over to T-Dog and Daryl, seeing them siphoning gas. She glanced up, spotting Mason and Toby down the road, who both gave her a thumbs-up.

"How's that sweet liquid death taste, T?" She asked cheekily.

T-Dog glared at her, and continued to suck on the hose.

Nye grinned, unbothered. "Ya know, when I was a kid I used to love the smell of gasoline." She continued the one sided conversation.

T-Dog gave her a look that clearly said 'You're batshit crazy'.

He got the gas to the front of the tube, and quickly put the hose in the gasoline jug, all while Nye giggled at his disgusted look.

"Your turn." He told her plainly, gesturing to the next car.

Her smile died. "T, have I ever told you I love what you've done with your hair?"

He merely raised a brow, and Nye could have sworn she saw Daryl smother a smirk, which she flipped him off for.

Nye shook her head, just about to give in, when she heard something that made her blood run cold.

A whistle. It sounded totally innocent, akin to a bird chirping, except that it was one she and the boys had developed at the start of the world collapsing. It was one they hadn't had to use until now, one they would only use if something went seriously wrong and they needed her to come to them, _now_.

Both men saw the blood drain from her face, immediately seeing something was wrong. Nye whipped around, and hopped on one of the cars' hoods to get a better look.

Her jaw dropped as she watched a whole mob Walkers making their way toward the group. But what was more important to her, was Mason and Toby, who were closer to the Walkers than they were to her.

"Oh my god…" Nye whispered faintly, barely registering Daryl hopping up on the car too, and cursing under his breath upon seeing the Walkers.

Both boys were staring at her, clearly asking what they were supposed to do through their eyes.

Nye hurriedly mouthed 'Get inside a car' and sagged slightly as she watched them follow her order. She jumped down, following after T-Dog, all while hoping more than anything, that her boys would be okay. The two ran low to the ground, ducking behind random cars as they passed to try to remain out of sight of the undead. She didn't notice when it was that Daryl split off from them, but she felt a surprising spike of worry at his sudden absence. As Nye crouched behind a car, and peeked out, she heard T-Dog make a startled noise. And when she looked, her eyes blew wide and her jaw dropped. He had torn the inside his right arm open, from a broken and jagged car door.

"T, w-what…?" She trailed off, the blood spurting from the wound distracting her. It was deep, enough so that she could see a vein jutting out, spurting blood endlessly.

T-Dog shook his head at her, and got back up while clutching his arm tightly. She followed quickly, wondering how things could have fallen apart so quickly.

Nye jogged after T-Dog, quietly trying to tell him to stop. "T, you have to _slow down_."

He just shook his head and kept stumbling onward.

Suddenly, a Walker came from behind a car, and T-Dog finally fell to the ground, half of his shirt already completely drenched in his own blood.

Nye stepped forward and raised her monkey wrench, but before she could swing, Daryl came up from behind it, and stabbed it in the back of the neck upwards into its brain stem.

She watched in confusion as he dragged T-Dog into a lying position, but realized what it was he was doing, as he put the Walker over him. T-Dog didn't have much of a reaction to having a Walker draped over him, too out of it from blood loss.

Nye and Daryl exchanged a quick look, and she quickly rolled under a car to her right, while he just pulled another dead Walker out from an abandoned car. She watched from underneath the vehicle as he put the Walker over himself hastily.

They watched each other as the Walkers started passing them, feet shuffling and dragging across the pavement. Nye's chest shook, as she felt tears well up. She forcefully fought them off, not wanting Daryl of all people to see her cry.

But he still did, and offered her a minute nod in reassurance.

It felt like an eternity, just waiting for the Walkers to pass, and as they slowly started trickling off, Nye felt herself stop shaking. As soon as they were sure they were all gone, Nye got out from under the car, and Daryl threw the Walker off of himself, and they quickly went to T-Dog.

As Daryl pulled the Walker off the other man, Nye checked the cut.

"Holy motherfucking shit balls."

"That bad?" T-Dog grunted, trembling and barely conscious.

Nye swallowed thickly, standing on wobbling legs. "I'll get the med kit." She said faintly.

T-Dog shook his head deliriously. "Check on the kids first."

"I'm the only one who knows what you need right now-"

T-Dog took a deep breath. "But you're dying to make sure they're fine."

Nye opened her mouth to argue, but no sound came out.

"I'll check on 'em."

Nye turned to Daryl, shocked by his offer. "You sure…?"

He nodded, and got up to go find them, but paused at Nye's next words.

"Thanks Dixon…"

With that, they both went different ways, Nye going for the Winnebago, and Daryl going for Mason and Toby.

They both froze however, when they heard a scream.

  
  


Things could not get worse, as apparently, not only did T-Dog get seriously injured, but Sophia ran off into the woods in fright.

Nye kept glancing up at the boys as she bandaged T-Dog's arm. Daryl had kept his word, and brought them to her, safe and sound. She was surprised (And slightly amused.) when he brought them to her, to see both boys talking non-stop, with a clearly uncomfortable Daryl.

Though, the amusement quickly died as they started telling her about how cool he was.

Everyone waited with bated breath for Rick and the others to come back with Sophia. But, of course, no one was as worried as Carol. Nye closed her eyes tightly, thinking about how horrible this whole situation was, she couldn't even imagine what she would do if it were Mason or Toby out there. And if she wasn't the only one who knew how to properly suture a wound closed, she would have gone out there like Daryl, Glenn and Shane had.

As the sun slowly made its way across the cloudless sky, Shane and Glenn were the first to come back out of the forest, informing the group that Rick and Daryl were still out searching.

"Why aren't we all out there looking? Why are we moving cars?"

Nye looked up at the sound of Carol's voice. She looked around as the rest of the present group moved cars, and sighed, feeling useless at the moment, as Dale wanted her to sit and watch over T-Dog after suturing and bandaging him up.

"We have to clear enough room so I can get the R.V. turned around as soon as it's running. Now that we have fuel we can double back to a bypass that Glenn flagged on the map." Dale patiently told her again, maybe for the fifth time.

Shane came up and nodded. "Going back's going to be easier than trying to get through this mess."

"We're not going anywhere till my daughter gets back." Carol told them firmly, tone tense.

"Hey, that goes without saying." Lori tried appeasing her, putting a comforting hand on her shoulder.

"Rick and Daryl, they're on it, okay? Just a matter of time." Shane reassured.

"Can't be soon enough for me. I'm still freaked out from that herd that passed us by, or whatever you'd call it." Andrea sighed, pitching a water bottle to Glenn.

"Yeah, what was that? All of them just marching along like that." Glenn shook his head incredulously.

"A herd. That sounds about right. We've seen it. It's like the night camp got attacked. Some wandering pack, only fewer." Shane said and let out a deep breath.

Nye stayed silent, switching between watching the woods for their return, watching her boys, and watching T-Dog.

Shane sighed again. "Okay. Come on, people. We still got a lot to do. Let's stay on it. Let's go, come on."

Shane glanced at Nye, and she got the distinct feeling he was irritated that she wasn't doing anything. And while technically she was keeping an eye on T-Dog, which was something, she was annoyed at her lack of use at the moment as well. But she'd rather sit there and feel useless and keep an eye on Mason and Toby, than go out there and not know how her boys were doing.

She lolled her head around and let her eyes roam, but stopped and did a double take when she saw Carl over by some cars.

"Carl? What're you doing." Nye asked calmly as she approached him with her hands buried in her pockets.

He swiftly turned around, and smiled slightly once seeing it was only her. "I found something."

Nye smiled back, thinking his grin was absolutely adorable. "Oh yeah? What'd you find." She inquired, matching his whisper.

He silently pointed at something in the navy pickup he was standing by. Nye peered in, and grinned widely.

"You, my friend, just struck oil."

He gave her a confused look, but quickly went to open the door to grab the arsenal he found sitting inside.

"Whoa whoa whoa." She gently grabbed his wrist, stopping him from opening it.

Nye looked through the window again, and found slight solace in the fact the body didn't seem to be a Walker, but she still wasn't taking any chances. She pulled out and readied her knife. Taking a deep breath, she nodded for him to open it.

He nodded back and slowly opened the door. He immediately went to grab the leather bound arsenal, but she stopped him again, making him give her an annoyed look.

"Lemme just…" Nye muttered, and slowly reached over and forced the knife through the back of the body's head. She grimaced at the feeling of the slightly squishy skull giving away, and the knife hitting brain matter. She was definitely not used to using knives, she much rather preferred her monkey wrench. She pulled the knife out, and gently nodded to him, giving the go ahead.

Carl turned back to it with a grin and took hold of the arsenal, pulling at it. She watched as it took a few tries, but smiled when he finally got it. That smile disappeared though, as the force of his last pull made him fall back, and made the body lean out of the car, the only thing keeping it from landing on the boy being the seatbelt strapped across its cold torso.

She quickly crouched down and put a hand on his shoulder. "Hey, you good?"

He nodded, eyes not leaving the body. She patted his shoulder twice, gaining his attention.

"You did real good there, Chief." She told him proudly, and pulled him off the ground.

Carl smiled up at her. "Really?"

Nye nodded surely. "Hells yeah. Why don't you show that to your dad when he gets back, I bet he'll be super impressed."

Carl grinned eagerly and took off, only stopping to turn around and quickly say "Thanks Nye!" before darting off again.

Nye took a deep breath and wiped the sweat from her brow while she made her way back to the Winnebago, all while seriously wishing she could wear something that didn't have long sleeves, but it was either that, or she show off her arm.

And no way in hell was she doing that.

  
  


The sun was beginning to set, and Nye was officially starting to panic.

She took a shaking breath and ringed he hands, staring out at the edge of the woods, where Rick and Daryl should be coming out with little Sophia any second.

"Nye?"

She looked up at Dale as he held out a water bottle to her. A small breathy laugh escaped her. "Sorry Dale. I was just…"

He nodded. "No, I get it, your head's off in its own little world."

He sat down and they both looked over at T-Dog, who had refused to stay and rest in the RV.

"I just keep thinking of what I would do if it were Ace or Smalls." Nye confided softly.

Dale nodded in understanding, and got back up. "You wanna help with the Winnebago? Help keep your mind off of it?"

Nye smiled thankfully at him. "Dale, have I ever told you you're my favorite?"

Dale chuckled and nodded. "Yes, Nye, you have. Though, I think there are two other people that come before me."

Nye chuckled, quickly checking inside the RV, and saw that the two boys were still napping inside (Crashed from the adrenaline high fading.) After making sure they were fine, she agreed to Dale's offer and started helping out.

They had been working on it only for a few minutes, when Andrea came over and asked Dale something that made Nye pause.

"Where's my gun?"

Nye glanced to a guilty looking Dale as Andrea continued.

"You have no right to take it."

"You don't need that just now, do you?" Dale asked in a soft tone.

"My father gave it to me. It's mine." Andrea replied irritably.

"I can hold onto it for you." Dale tried negotiating with her, wiping his hands on an oil stained rag.

" _Or_ you can give it back to me."

Nye tensed, and looked between the two, locking eyes with Shane for a second, and asking him 'What the fuck?' through them.

"Everything cool?" Shane approached the three, hands sternly on his hips in his usual 'authority' pose.

Andrea scoffed. "No, I want my gun back."

Dale turned to Shane, addressing him instead of Andrea. "I don't think it's a good idea right now."

"Why not?"

Nye shifted on her feet, as she understood why Dale didn't want Andrea to have her gun.

Dale paused for a moment. "I'm not comfortable with it." He whispered.

Andrea scoffed again.

"The truth is, less guns we have floating around camp the better." Shane agreed, pursing his lips.

Nye glowered at that, getting the distinct feeling he wouldn't ask for, say, Rick or T-Dog's gun.

"You turning over your weapon?" Andrea asked him with her arms crossed, clearly getting the same sexist vibe from him that Nye was.

Shane chuckled. "No. But I'm trained in its use. That's what the rest of y'all need is proper training. But until that time I think it's best if Dale keeps them all accounted for."

_Fuck you, Shane._

Andrea let out one more scoff, followed by an "Uh-huh." With that, she stomped away from them furiously.

Shane turned to Nye, knowing she had a pistol. But before he could even open his mouth, Nye cut him off.

"I'm trained, so don't even try it, asshat." She barked in a clipped tone.

She went to walk away, not wanting him to question her, as what she had said was a blatant lie. But before she could, Glenn spoke.

"Oh God, they're back."

Nye ran over to stand near Carol, and swallowed thickly when she saw Sophia not with them.

"You didn't find her?" Carol croaked, eyes watery and clearly fighting off a panic attack.

"Her trail went cold. We'll pick it up again at first light." Rick explained, attempting to reassure her.

"You can't leave my daughter out there on her own, to spend the night alone in the woods." Carol said desperately.

"Out in the dark's no good. We'd just be trippin' over ourselves. More people get lost." Daryl added softly.

"But she's _twelve_. She can't be out there on her own. You didn't find anything?" Carol choked out in a shaking voice.

"I know this is hard. But I'm asking you not to panic. We know she was out there." Rick told her diplomatically, hands held up in a peaceful gesture.

"And we tracked her for a while." Daryl tacked on reassuringly. And Nye was starting to not like how difficult he was making it to hate him.

"We have to make this an organized effort. Daryl knows the woods better than anybody. I've asked him to oversee this."

But Carol wasn't listening, and Nye noticed how her face became even paler. "Is that blood?" She asked faintly, and Nye quickly followed her gaze, looking down at Daryl's pant leg, and blanched herself at the dark dampness clinging to the hem.

"We took down a Walker." Rick explained reluctantly.

Carol stumbled back. " _Walker_? Oh my _God_."

Nye was starting to worry Carol was going to faint.

"There was no sign it was ever anywhere near Sophia." Rick assured her, arms out like he expected her to drop any second.

"How can you know that?" Andrea asked skeptically.

Rick paused, and looked to Daryl.

The hunter sighed. "We cut the sumbitch open, made sure."

Nye couldn't help it, she let out a low whistle.

Carol slowly sat down on the railing. "Oh God. How could you just leave her out there to begin with?" She rounded on Rick harshly.

Nye winced at the accusation, but understood to a degree, after all, if it had been one of her boys, she would have decked Rick in the face by now.

"How could you just leave her?" Carol continued, getting even more heated.

"Those two Walkers were on us. I had to draw them off. It was her best chance." Rick tried defending himself, but was clearly guilty for what happened, and Nye just felt awful for everyone involved in the situation.

"Sounds like he didn't have a choice, Carol." Shane butted in.

"How was she supposed to find her way back on her own? She's just a child. _She's just a child_."

"It was my only option. The only choice I could make." Rick said desperately.

"I'm sure nobody doubts that." Shane backed his partner up, but Nye looked at him with narrowed eyes, and couldn't help but feel like his words were insincere.

"My little girl got left in the woods." Carol whispered brokenly.

  
  


The leather arsenal was slammed onto the hood of a car and unrolled, revealing the many sharp knives inside.

"Everybody takes a weapon." Rick ordered, overlooking the distribution.

"These aren't the kind of weapons we need. What about the guns?" Andrea scoffed in disbelief, unimpressed by the arsenal.

"We've been over that. Daryl, Nye, Rick and I are carrying. We can't have people popping off rounds every time a tree rustles." Shane told her, tired of repeating himself.

Nye grinned and adjusted her gun holster. It had taken some serious arguing with Shane about keeping her gun, but after she threatened to castrate him, Rick stepped in and conceded.

" _Besides, she said she has training._ " He had said, trying to convince Shane, and causing her to wince in guilt.

While yes, she wasn't trained exactly, she liked to blow off steam at her local shooting range. It wasn't a very healthy way to cope with stress. Then again, Nye wasn't exactly a healthy minded person in the first place.

"It's not the trees I'm worried about." Andrea remarked.

"Say somebody fires at the wrong moment, a herd happens to be passing by. See, then it's game over for all of us. So you need to get over it." Shane explained slowly like she was a child.

While Nye still felt like the main reason for the whole gun problem had to do with Shane being sexist, she was getting a little tired of Andrea's whining.

Nye looked back at the arsenal, not bothering to take anything, as she had her monkey wrench. She smiled wryly though, at the childlike look on Glenn's face as he held a weirdly shaped blade.

"The idea is to take the creek up about five miles, turn around and come back down the other side. Chances are she'll be by the creek. It's her only landmark." Daryl reasoned, obviously the most well equipped for the situation, with his tracking abilities in mind.

"Stay quiet and stay sharp. Keep space between you but always stay within sight of each other." Rick ordered.

"Everybody assemble your packs. Dale, Keep on those repairs." Shane tacked on.

"We've got to get this R.V. ready to move."

Dale nodded. "We won't stay here a minute longer than we have to. Good luck out there. Bring Sophia back."

"Keep an eye on Carl while we're gone." Rick asked him.

"I'm going with you. You need people, right? To cover as much ground as possible." Carl spoke up, and Nye couldn't help but raise an impressed brow.

She felt two sets of eyes drilling holes into the back of her head, she let out a light chuckle, and turned.

"What?" She asked, though, she knew what.

They both simply stared her down.

Nye turned back to the Grimes family.

"Your call. I can't always be the bad guy." Lori shrugged at Rick.

"Well, they have all of you to look after them. I'd say they're in good hands." Dale pointed out, looking between the six of them.

"Okay. Okay. But always within our sight, no exceptions." Rick relented.

Nye turned back to Mason and Toby. "Well, I can't be the cool one if I don't take you two with me, now can I?"

They both grinned and ran over to the hood of the car and both grabbed something from the arsenal. Nye saw Dale wink at the three boys.

She was about to go over to Lori and give her the condom, to try and lighten the mood a little, when she saw Andrea stiffly walk up to Dale.

"Andrea, I'm begging you. Don't put me in this position." Dale pleaded.

"I'm not going out there without my gun. I'll even say please." Andrea hissed through a faux smile.

"I'm doing this for you."

"No, Dale, you're doing it for you. You need to stop. What do you think's gonna happen? I'm gonna stick it in my mouth and pull the trigger the moment you hand it to me?"

Nye winced at the harshness of her words.

"I know you're angry at me. That much is clear." Dale whispered. "But if I hadn't done what I did, you'd be dead now."

"Jenner gave us an option. I chose to stay." Andrea argued.

"You chose suicide." Dale argued quietly.

"So what's that to you? You barely know me."

"I know Amy's death devastated you."

"Keep her out of this." She quickly cut him off. "This is _not_ about Amy. This is about _us_. And if I decided that I had nothing left to live for, who the hell are you to tell me otherwise? To force my hand like that?" She finished thickly.

"I saved your life." He said softly.

"No, Dale. I saved yours. You forced that on me. I didn't want your blood on my hands and that is the only reason I left that building. What did you expect? What, I'd have some kind of epiphany? Some life-affirming catharsis?"

Nye looked around and saw that, at this point, everyone was watching the scene unfold, even Daryl.

"Maybe just a little gratitude."

"Gratitude?" She asked in disbelief. "I wanted to die my way, not torn apart by drooling freaks. That was my choice. You took that away from me, Dale."

"But-"

"But you know better? All I wanted after my sister died was to get out of this endless horrific nightmare we live every day. I wasn't hurting anyone else. You took my choice away, Dale. And you expect gratitude?"

Dale shook his head. "I don't know what to say."

"I'm not your little girl. I'm not your wife. And I am sure as hell not your problem. That's all there is to say."

Nye hung her head, looking up through her lashes at the heartbroken look on Dale's face. She tried to give her best reassuring smile to him, though it was fairly weak, then turned to the boys, nodding at them to follow the group into the forest. All while feeling horrible for leaving Dale like that, and glaring ahead at Andrea's back.

  
  


They made their way through the foliage, trying to spot any sign of Sophia, and keeping an eye out for any Walkers ready to attack.

"I spy…"

Both boys in front of her turned their heads sharply, glaring daggers at her.

Nye simply stuck her tongue out at them. She looked back behind her, and noted with a frown that Carl looked like someone kicked his puppy. So, naturally, there was only one thing to do.

"Psst."

Carl and a few others glanced her way. But Nye only looked at Carl.

"Favorite Ninja Turtle, lay it on me." She prompted him in a hushed and over eager voice.

He looked at her like she was insane, but smiled nonetheless with a suppressed giggle. "Leonardo." He answered after a beat.

Nye pointed to her chest with her thumb. "I'm a Ralph kinda gal."

Carl snorted, and Lori, walking beside him, smiled at how the grim expression eased away.

Nye proudly puffed out her chest, grinning as she looked up, the group coming to a stop.

"She could be in there." She heard Shane say.

Nye came up to the front of the group, telling the boys to stay behind, and saw a yellow camping tent up ahead.

"Could be a whole bunch of things in there." Daryl replied.

Daryl, Rick, Shane and Nye all made their way over to it. Daryl took out his knife and went ahead, getting closer the tent. Nye tensed as he peered in and shrugged.

Rick turned back to the group, and whispered "Carol. Call out softly. If she's in there, yours is the first voice she should hear."

Carol came forward. "Sophia, sweetie, are you in there? Sophia, it's Mommy. Sophia. We're all here, baby. It's Mommy." Carol's voice came out more desperate the longer she spoke.

Nye, Rick and Shane came forward, and Daryl started to unzip the tent. He pulled it back and coughed softly, before going in.

Suddenly, Nye lurched forward and gagged violently.

_What in the holy fucking hell is that!?_

It was probably the worst thing she had smelled in a while, and it was coming from inside the tent.

"Daryl? Daryl?" Carol called out, growing worried.

"Yo Dixon, you dead?" Nye asked hoarsely.

He came out empty handed. "It ain't her."

Nye sighed harshly.

"What's in there?" Andrea asked hesitantly.

"Some guy. Did what Jenner said. Opted out. Ain't that what he called it?" Daryl answered, staring at Andrea pointedly.

Echoing in the distance, the sound bouncing off of the trees surrounding them, church bells started ringing.

"Holy fuc-" Nye started to whisper so faintly no one else heard her.

Rick pointed in the direction the bells rang, and then they were all sprinting.

"What direction?" Shane asked, out of breath.

"I think that way. I'm pretty sure." Rick answered.

"Damn, it's hard to tell out here."

"If we heard them, maybe Sophia did too." Carol suggested hopefully.

"Someone's ringing those bells, maybe calling others." Glenn added.

"Or signaling they found her." Andrea hypothesized.

"She could be ringing them herself. Come on." Rick nodded ahead, and they all started running again.

They eventually came upon a church, but something didn't add up.

"That can't be it. Got no steeple, no bells." Shane pointed out, panting from the run, but Rick was already heading toward the building. "Rick!"

They, of course, ran after him.

"Son… of… a…" Nye said between pants, stumbling to a stop, hands on her knees.

They went up the steps, and Nye froze when they swung the door open, seeing what looked like people at first. But she quickly saw they were already dead.

Daryl, Rick and Shane swiftly dispatched the three Walkers, and the rest of the group started making their way in.

Nye frowned softly the second her foot touched the carpeted floor, and she slowly walked up to the front of the church, staring at the gold crucifix.

"Sophia!" She heard Rick yell desperately.

She stopped beside Daryl.

"Yo, J.C, you takin' requests?"

She looked sideways at him, not knowing whether to laugh, or cry at this point.

"I'm telling you, it's the wrong church. It's got no steeple, Rick. There's no steeple." Shane agued, but was quickly proven wrong.

The bells rang again, much louder this time, and it was clear that this was the right church.

They all shared a look, and bolted out the door. Daryl and Glenn made it first, and Nye saw the horn and wire right as Glenn tore out some wiring in the power box on the side of the building.

"A timer. It's on a timer." Daryl growled, out of breath, and Nye felt like she was punched in the gut.

"I'm gonna go back in for a bit." Carol said weakly, holding her middle.

Everyone but Daryl, Nye, Andrea, Lori and Shane went back in. The boys both paused, seeing Nye not following, but she just nodded, silently telling them it was fine, and that they could go in, which they did.

She walked away from the church, and over to the headstones, slowly sitting down and leaning on one.

"Hope you don't mind and come back to haunt my ass." Nye huffed, out of breath, only half joking as really nothing would really surprise her anymore.

"Ain't goin' back in?"

A shadow fell over her, she opened her eyes (wait, when had she shut them?) and looked up at the person before her.

"Not really all that religious." Nye replied simply, wondering why the hell Daryl was talking to her.

He nodded, as if expecting that, and she hoped he didn't notice how tense she became at the current topic.

She absently wiped the sweat from her forehead, and took another deep breath.

"The hell do you wear that for?" He suddenly asked, nodding down at her torso.

She looked back up at him, totally thrown, that is until she saw he was looking at her white and grey striped jacket, the obvious cause of her flushed face and trouble breathing.

Now she knew he saw her tense.

"Doesn't matter. Why aren't _you_ in there?" Nye evaded stiltedly.

Daryl looked at her strangely, clearly wanted an explanation, and Nye was shocked when he simply shrugged and said "Not all that religious either."

She blinked owlishly at him. That's it? No pushing the topic whatsoever? Holy shit.

"Nye!"

She and Daryl both looked up as Mason and Toby ran up to them.

"Are you okay? You look like you're having trouble breathing, do you need your inhaler?" Toby asked kindly.

Nye shut her eyes and hung her head, and while she loved him with all her heart, she really wished he hadn't picked that exact moment.

She could feel Daryl's stare on her, and heard Mason whack Toby on the back of his head.

"Dude! If front of Daryl? You know she tries to look badass in front of him." Mason chastised him.

And now, her flushed face wasn't from the heat.

Nye snapped her head up and glared at them both with tight lips, causing both boys to pale.

"W-what?" Mason stuttered.

She continued to glare.

"H-he was the one who…"

She kept on going.

"Fine, sorry." Mason finally muttered.

Nye nodded and got up, refusing to look at Daryl. She just hoped he didn't take it the way it sounded, as she only wanted to be badass in front of him to prove to him she was better.

"Ahem." Shane got their attention. "Y'all gonna follow the creek bed back, okay? Daryl, you're in charge. Me and Rick, we're just gonna hang back, search this area another hour or so just to be thorough."

"You're splittin' us up. You sure?" Daryl asked with a brow raised.

"Yeah, we'll catch up to you." Shane assured.

"I want to stay too. I'm her friend." Carl said, making them all look between him and the parents.

Lori surprised them by giving the go ahead. "Just be careful, okay?"

"I will." He promised her and she pulled him into a hug.

"When did you start growing up?" She asked him fondly.

Nye looked around the group, and frowned at the decided "teams", more specifically, the incredibly uneven sides.

Rick walked up to Lori and gave her a kiss. "I'll be along soon enough." He pulled back and took out his gun. "Here, take this. Remember how to use it?"

"I'm not taking your gun and leaving you unarmed." Lori told him with a shake of her head.

"Here, got a spare. Take it." Daryl handed her his spare, and Nye couldn't fight off the feeling it gave her seeing him do that, it was something akin to being proud, and she didn't like that.

"Hold up."

At Nye's command, everyone turned and looked at her in question.

She hesitated a second, before nodding at Rick. "I'm coming with you."

Shane spoke first. "You sure that's a good idea?" He asked, and stared pointedly at Mason and Toby.

She nodded, turning her head to the boys. "Stay with the group, always in someone's sight," She paused, and grimaced, like the next words hurt to say. "And listen to Dixon…" She muttered.

They both nodded hesitantly.

She smiled at them proudly, and turned back to Rick, Shane, and Carl. "Safety in numbers, which this team's lacking."

Rick nodded slowly in agreement. "Alright."

  
  


They walked along, Rick leading, Shane in the middle, and Nye and Carl in the back, who were respectively making faces and laughing quietly at each other.

Until a few branches snapped, breaking the relative silence.

Rick held up a hand, signaling them to stop, then pointed in the direction he heard it.

They looked through the trees, and when Nye saw what it was, she grinned like a maniac.

A beautiful buck stepped out and let them all stare at it in awe.

Shane started to raise his gun, but Rick stopped him, and nodded at Carl, who was slowly walking toward the buck.

Nye only faintly noticed him dragging her along, as they had been holding hands while walking (Not for safety reasons, they were just swinging them back and forth in boredom) though Nye made sure she was partially behind him, wanting him to have this moment to himself.

He looked back at Rick and Shane, and then turned back to the deer, a huge smile plastered on his face.

Nye grinned, wishing Mason and Toby could-

_**Bang**_!

Her heart stopped. Something warm splattered the side of her face. She felt his small hand slip from hers.

And she looked down to see Carl limp, laying on the ground…

_Shot_


	6. Take it from me

She was running faster then she ever thought possible, jumping over any obstacle in her way and darting through the trees encasing them.

Nye glanced behind herself as they made it to a field, and blanched further upon seeing the pale and limp Carl, being carried by his hysteric father.

" _Go_! Go tell them!"

Rick's plea was met with a quick nod, and Nye pumped any energy she had left into her legs, going faster than she had ever ran by this point. She nearly tripped about a dozen times in her haste, but when she saw fences, a barn, and a house, it was like all the energy she had was zapped away, and she found herself collapsing in front of the steps to the house.

Standing on the porch was a woman Nye would guess was around her own age, give or take a couple years, who stared at her in shock.

"Deer… Accident… Shot… Carl…" Nye rasped between pants, digging her fingers into the dirt, and trying to keep from passing out. Her heart felt like it was doing a dance in her chest, making her queasy.

The brown haired women stared at her in worry, and when she looked up to the field, Nye saw her pale.

"Dad!" The women quickly shouted and ran into the house, sounding panicked.

Nye glanced behind herself, and whimpered slightly at the sight of the bloodied Carl, being carried towards them by Rick. The screen door swung open, and five figures came out. The brunette from a few seconds ago, a younger looking girl, this one blonde, a teenage boy carrying a wooden bat and seeming to be the same age as the blonde, a middle aged blonde woman, and finally, an older man with thinning white hair.

Hershel.

The family watched in trepidation as Rick ran up to the house.

"Was he bit?" The elderly man who Nye assumed to be Hershel asked.

"Shot, by your man." Rick said hoarsely, stumbling and gripping Carl tightly, looking ready to pass out himself.

"Otis?" The blonde woman asked in shock.

"He said find Hershel. Is that you?" Rick asked in a broken voice. "Help me. Help my boy." He begged, clinging to Carl.

"Get him inside. Inside! Patricia, I need my full kit." The man quickly ordered, rolling up his sleeves and leading them inside.

Nye slowly got back up, stumbling on her numb legs and wishing dearly she had her inhaler. She followed them into the house, faintly hearing the man give orders, and like a switch had been flipped, she was back to nurse mode. She darted into the room they were setting up for Carl and braced a hand against the doorway.

Nye panted. "I can help." She took a deep breath, holding it for a second before continuing. "I was a nurse, I can help."

Hershel merely nodded and turned to Rick, who was closer. "Pillowcase."

But Rick was in a daze. "Is-is he alive?"

Hershel didn't reply. "Pillowcase, quick."

"Is-is he alive?" He asked again, but did as Hershel instructed.

"Fold it. Make a pad. Put pressure on the wound." He ordered and checked Carl's chest with a stethoscope. "I've got a heartbeat. It's faint."

Nye sagged against the doorway, it was great news, but also worrisome.

"I got it. Step back." The woman Nye assumed was Patricia ordered.

Hershel pulled back from Carl "Maggie, IV."

Nye perked up, as IV's were something she could easily help with.

"Your name?" Hershel asked Rick over his shoulder.

"R-Rick." He shakily replied, and didn't take his eyes off Carl.

"Rick?"

He nodded numbly. "I'm-I'm-I'm Rick."

Hershel nodded. "Rick, we're gonna do everything we can, okay? You need to give us some room."

Rick didn't move, held in place by his shock and terror of losing his boy.

" _Now_."

Nye stepped forward as Rick stepped out of the room, opening her mouth to repeat her offer to help, but Hershel cut her off.

"You said you're a nurse?"

She nodded numbly.

"Alright then."

And Nye took that as a go ahead.

"'M Nye, by the way." She said faintly as she took up the IV job.

Nye took a few calming breaths and glanced up at the doorway when she heard two heavy sets of feet make their way in, who she quickly saw were Rick and Shane.

"You know his blood type?" Hershel asked.

"A-positive, s-same as mine." Rick answered, and Nye paused.

"That's fortunate. Don't wander far, I'm gonna need you."

Nye, without thinking, muttered "O neg."

They all gave her confused looks, and she quickly realized why. She looked up and locked eyes with everyone briefly. "I'm O negative."

Hershel nodded. "We'll keep that in mind" And turned to Otis. "What happened?"

"I was tracking a buck. Bullet went through it. Went clean through."

Nye took solace in the fact the man looked broken up about it, but it didn't mean he was off the hook in her eyes, not even by a little.

"The deer slowed the bullet down, which certainly saved his life, but it did not go through clean. It broke up into pieces." Hershel informed them. "If I can get the bullet fragments out. And I'm countin' six."

"I never saw him. Not until he was on the ground." Otis whispered to Patricia, and Nye put two and two together that they were married from the wedding bands on their fingers.

Suddenly, Rick spoke. "Lori doesn't know."

Nye sucked a breath sharply through her teeth.

"My wife doesn't know… My wife doesn't know." Rick whimpered, and Nye felt her eyes sting for him.

Nye weakly glared at the cross hanging on the wall across the room. _You happy now? Happy a little girl's missing, and a little boy's been shot. Well I'm telling you now, if you pull some shit and hurt Mason or Toby in any way, I'm gonna find a way to kick your holy bearded ass._

  
  


"You still worrying about it?" Andrea asked Lori and stopped the group's trek through the woods.

"It was a gunshot." Was Lori's simple reply.

"We all heard it." Daryl commented, looking unbothered.

Lori rounded on him. "Why one. Why just _one_ gunshot?"

Daryl shrugged. "Maybe they took down a Walker."

"Please don't patronize me. You know Rick wouldn't risk a gunshot to put down one Walker, or Shane, or even Nye."

Both boys scowled at her unnecessary use of the word "even".

"They'd do it quietly."

"Shouldn't they have caught up with us by now?" Carol added anxiously.

"There's nothin' we can do about it, anyway. Can't run around these woods chasin' echoes." Daryl told them unwaveringly, and Mason and Toby nodded along, clearly they were going to agree with whatever he said, blinded by hero worship ever since he got them from the car.

"So, what do we do?" Lori asked in a defeated tone.

"Same as we've been. Beat the bush for Sophia, work our way back to the highway."

Andrea nodded. "I'm sure they'll hook up with us back at the RV."

They made it a few more yards, the boys making sure to walk next to Daryl, when they were once again stopped.

"I'm sorry for what you're going through. I know how you feel." Andrea quietly said to Carol.

"I suppose you do. Thank you." Carol looked around the woods. "The thought of her, out here by herself It's the not knowing that's killing me. I just keep hoping and praying she doesn't wind up like Amy."

Everyone winced hard at that, and Mason even muttered " _Damn_..."

Carol realized what she had said and looked horrified by her own words, hands coming up and covering her mouth. "Oh, God! That's the worst thing I ever said."

Andrea swallowed thickly. "We're all hoping and praying with you, for what it's worth."

Daryl came forward. "I'll tell ya what it's worth. Not a damn thing. It's a waste of time, all this hopin' and prayin'." He looked to Carol. "We're gonna locate that little girl. She's gonna be just fine." He turned and started walking again. "Am I the only one zen around here? Good lord."

Both boys grinned largely and ran to catch up with him, Mason leaned and whispered to Toby. "We gotta make Nye like him."

Toby nodded with a grin. "Absolutely."

  
  


Nye froze, and stared in fear as Carl started coming to, screaming and crying in pain.

"Maggie, get Rick." Hershel hurriedly ordered his eldest.

Maggie followed her fathers order, and Nye wished Rick didn't have to witness this.

"Gonna be okay… You're gonna be okay Carl…" She faintly whispered, not knowing who she was trying to comfort at the moment.

Maggie brought Rick and Shane in and Hershel immediately told the latter to hold down the crying boy.

Shane did as he was instructed, a heavy scowl on his face.

Carl screamed and cried, and Nye felt like throwing up. She wasn't a trauma nurse, and top of that, this was _Carl_.

" _Dad_!"

Hershel pushed the plyers inside Carl deeper, reaching for a bullet fragment. "Almost there."

Carl let out a blood curdling scream, and Rick couldn't take it anymore. "Stop! _You're killin' him_!"

"Rick, do you want him to live?" Hershel asked harshly.

"He needs blood." Patricia told Rick, looking at him expectantly.

Nye jumped as Shane yelled at Rick. "Do it now!"

Rick gave her his arm, but suddenly Carl stopped moving, and both men looked terrified.

"Wait-wait, hey…" Shane muttered, too scared to put a sentence together.

"Passed out. He's fine." Nye softly told them, watching the very faint thumping in his pale neck.

Hershel pulled out a fragment of the bullet. "One down. Five to go."

Nye was told to put in the IV, and Hershel put a blood pressure cuff on Carl.

"Pressure's stable." Hershel informed them.

"Lori needs to be here. She doesn't even know what's goin' on." Rick croaked. "I got-I gotta go find her, bring her back."

Hershel shook his head. "You can't do that."

"She's his mother! She needs to know what's happened. Her son's lying here, _shot_."

"And he's going to need more blood." Hershel cut him off coldly.

"Nye's O negative!" Rick argued, gesturing fiercely to the brunette carefully sliding a needle out of his arm.

"Doesn't matter, you're his father. You're the best match." He turned to Shane. "He can't go more than fifty feet from this bed."

Rick slowly got up, needing Patricia to stabilize him after giving so much blood.

Nye, this whole time, had just been sitting beside the bed, watching over Carl silently, and every so often, she'd blink and his hair would suddenly be curly, or darker, and his pale face would have a smattering of freckles, or he would be missing his two top front teeth. It hurt, her own head messing with her to make her see the thing she feared most.

  
  


"We'll lose the light before too long. I think we should call it." Daryl told them.

"Let's head back." Lori agreed.

"We'll pick it up again tomorrow?" Carol asked hopefully.

"Yeah, we'll find her tomorrow." Lori assured her.

Daryl whistled and they started moving again.

Toby pulled his backpack off and looked through it, hoping to find a flashlight incase it took them until dark to get back. He froze however, when his hand touched something that wasn't meant to be there.

"Oh no."

The group paused again, looking back at Toby in worry.

"What's wrong?" Lori asked, but Toby was to busy panicking to answer.

"Oh no, oh no, oh no!" He just kept muttering, this time Mason stepped up.

"Shit! Don't tell me she forgot it!" Mason whined tensely, seeming to know what was wrong.

"What's goin' on?" Daryl approached the two, and Mason threw up his hands in frustration.

"She forgot her freakin' inhaler! _Again_!" Mason barked angrily, kicking a random rock while Toby was visibly worried.

"You don't think she'll have an attack? Do you?" Toby nervously asked, fidgeting with the blue piece of life saving plastic.

"Its been a few months, I think she'll be fine." His brother said in a measured tone, but there was worry poorly hidden in Mason's reply.

They started moving again after that, and people were beginning to get tired.

"How much farther?" Lori wiped her sweaty brow.

"Not much. Maybe a hundred yards as the crow flies." Daryl replied easily.

"The hell's that mean?" Mason grumbled.

"Maybe Nye will know." Toby suggested, and was about to start another round of asking if he thought she'd be okay without her inhaler, when they heard a scream.

"Andrea?!" Lori yelled, noticing the blonde had split off, and was being held down by a Walker.

They all ran to her, seeing the Walker going in for the kill, when out of nowhere a brunette woman on a horse rode up and swung a baseball bat at it, knocking it off Andrea.

"Lori? Lori Grimes?" She asked quickly, eyes flickering from each woman in the group.

They all exchanged confused looks, and Lori stepped forward.

"I'm Lori."

"Rick sent me. You've got to come now." The woman told them tersely.

Lori blinked, her stomach sinking. "What?"

"There's been an accident. Carl's been shot. He's still alive but you've gotta come now. Rick needs you." The woman said this all without taking a breath.

Lori stood in shock, so did everyone else.

"Just come!" She urged impatiently.

Lori snapped out of it, rushing to get onto the horse, looking slightly dazed.

"Whoa whoa _whoa_! We don't know this girl. You can't get on that horse." Daryl tried stopping her, but the woman on the horse spoke up.

"Rick said you had others on the highway, that big traffic snarl?"

Glenn nodded dumbly. "Uh-huh."

She nodded. "Backtrack to Fairburn Road. Two miles down is our farm. You'll see the mailbox. Name's Greene." She snapped the reins with a shout, urging the horse into a run.

The group watched as the two women rode away, all frozen and processing what just happened. The Walker the brunette knocked off of Andrea wheezed and sat back up.

"Shut up." Daryl barked, and promptly shot it dead.

"Shot? What do ya mean _shot_?!" Dale stared at them in shock and worry upon their return to the highway.

Glenn panted, and shook his head. "I don't know, Dale. I wasn't there. All I know is this chick rode out of nowhere like Zorro on a horse and took Lori."

Dale sharply turned to Daryl. "You let her?" He asked accusingly.

"Climb down out of my asshole, man. Rick sent her. She knew Lori's name and Carl's." Daryl defended, backed up by both boys nodding.

Andrea made her way over the guard rail, and Dale immediately went to her. "I heard screams. Was that you?"

She completely ignored him and continued marching ahead.

"She got attacked by a Walker. It was a close call." Glenn explained lowly.

Dale looked over to her as she made her way over to the RV. "Andrea, are you all right?"

She merely glared at him, shaking her head in disbelief, and slammed the RV door.

No one spoke for a few seconds, until Mason broke the silence.

"I think she's mad."

  
  


Nye slumped in her seat, staring blankly at the needle in her left forearm, the same one she offered to Jenner during their blood tests. Her mind drifted to all sorts of different thoughts and worries about her boys, and she remembered with a huff of a laugh that she once again forgot her inhaler. Chances were Toby noticed by now and was freaking out.

Two figures came through the door, and she quickly looked up at them. She frowned in sympathy at the broken look on Lori's face.

Nye watched, trying to make herself as small as possible, as Lori came over to Carl, holding his face gently between her hands.

"My baby boy. Baby boy. It's okay. Mama's here. _Mama's here_. You're gonna be okay. You're gonna be _okay_." She whispered brokenly, reaching for Rick's hand behind her. "We're gonna make you okay."

At some point Hershel and Patricia came back in, and Patricia took out Nye's IV. She quickly tugged the sleeve of her jacket back down, feeling better the less skin she showed, even on her left arm.

"Why are you doin' this?" Lori asked her softly when she saw the IV get taken out, wondering why she was so eager to help, and to give blood.

Nye smiled softly at the other woman. "Cause if it were Ace or Smalls, I know you'd do the same." Nye looked over at Carl and smiled softly. "And cause Carl's a great kid."

Lori nodded, and looked between Rick and Nye's pale complexions. "How many transfusions?"

"Two. Only two." Rick assured her.

"This is my first one." Nye answered, inwardly relieved that was only as much Carl needed from her at the moment. Lord knows what kind of trouble it would stir up if she up and collapsed.

Lori looked to Rick. "You know he wanted to do the same for you when you were in the hospital. I had to talk him out of it."

Rick nodded his head, a pained smile growing on his face.

Hershel and Patricia took Rick and Lori to another room for a talk, leaving Nye alone with the unconscious child.

She sighed and adjusted in her seat, watching him like a hawk.

"Tell you what, if you just stay alive and heal up, I'll tell you my full name." Nye told him in a weak whisper, as if it were some grand prize. "That's top secret information. Information only Ace and Smalls have access to," Nye sighed. "So you better be okay." She finished softly.

In the dining room, Rick, Lori, and Hershel were discussing the surgery.

"Okay, as soon as they get back you can perform this surgery?" Lori asked, referring to Shane and Otis.

"I'll certainly do my best." Hershel promised them.

Lori nodded. "Okay I mean, you've done this procedure before?"

"Well, yes, in a sense."

"In a sense?" Lori repeated, bemused.

"Honey, we don't have the luxury of shopping for a surgeon." Rick told her gently.

"No, I understand that. But, I mean, you're a doctor, right?" She asked Hershel.

"Yes, ma'am. Of course. A vet"

Lori perked up. "A veteran. A combat medic?"

Hershel gave her a look, and said, in a bland tone of voice "A veterinarian."

Both parents of the boy blanched.

"A-and you've done this… surgery before on what? Cows, pigs?" Lori asked in disbelief.

"I- I have- I have to sit." Rick collapsed into a chair.

"W-what, uh, what about Nye? She's-"

"A delivery nurse mostly, she told me, meaning she dealt mostly with helping deliver babies." He cut her off.

Lori sat down beside Rick, shaking her head and staring at Hershel damningly. "Completely in over your head, aren't you?"

"Ma'am, aren't we all?" He said grimly.

  
  


"I won't do it. We can't just leave."

"Carol, the group is split. We're scattered and weak." Dale argued.

"What if she comes back and we're not here? It could happen." She argued right back.

"What if Soph found her way back, and we were just gone? It would be a shit parade for everyone." Mason added, making Toby glare at him slightly for using the term 'Shit parade' in this situation. Though, in his defense, he picked it up from Nye.

"Watch your mouth." Dale lightly warned Mason.

Andrea paid the exchange no mind. "If Sophia found her way back and we were gone, that would be awful."

Her version seemed to get through to them, and both boys glared at her as a result. It wasn't fair that no one ever listened to them or their ideas.

Daryl nodded. "Okay. We gotta plan for this. I say tomorrow mornin' is soon enough to pull up stakes. Give us a chance to rig a big sign, leave her some supplies. I'll hold here tonight, stay with the RV."

"If the RV is staying, I am too." Dale crossed his arms.

"Ohhh, we wanna stay too!" Mason yelled, pulling Toby into a chokehold for no apparent reason.

"Thank you. Thank you both." Carol sniffled, beaming to Dale and Daryl.

Andrea shrugged and raised her hand. "I'm in."

"Well, if you're all staying then I'm-" Glenn started, but got cut off by Dale.

"Not you, Glenn. You're going, take Carol's cherokee."

"Me? Why is it always me?" Glenn asked in anger.

"You have to find this farm, reconnect with our people and see what's going on. But most important, you have to get T-Dog there. This is not an option." Dale told him. "That cut has gone from bad to worse. He has a very serious blood infection." As Dale said this, an idea hit Daryl, and he quickly went over to Merle's motorcycle. "Get him to that farm. See if they have any antibiotics. Because if not, T-Dog will die, no joke." Dale finished.

Daryl grabbed a rag off the motorcycle, glaring at Dale, and pulled out a big bag of pill bottles and some less legal drugs.

"Keep your oily rags off my brother's motorcycle." He said to Dale and tossed the rag back at him. "Why'd you wait till now to say anythin'? Got my brother's stash." He said, as if it were no big deal, and started going through it. "Crystal. X- Don't need that. Got some kick ass painkillers." He tossed those to Glenn and finally found what he was looking for. "Doxycycline." Which he tossed to the stunned Dale. "Not the generic stuff neither. It's first class. Merle got the clap on occasion."

He walked off, and no one knew what to say, well, except Mason of course.

"What's 'the clap'?"

All of the adults simultaneously tensed.

  
  


Nye's leg jumped up over and over as she watched Hershel check Carl's blood pressure again.

"Pressure's dropping again. We can't wait much longer." Hershel told them, and Nye deflated.

Rick held out his arm. "Take some more, whatever he needs. Then I'm gonna go."

"Go? Go where?" Lori asked him.

"He said five miles, they should be back by now. Something's gone wrong."

"Are you insane? You're not going after them." Lori demanded forcefully.

"Rick, listen to your wife." Hershel ordered from the floor beside the bed.

"Yeah Rick, just-" Nye started, but he interrupted her.

"If they got into trouble-" He tried again, attempting to keep his voice even.

"You're in no condition to do anything about it, you've given too much blood." Hershel cut him off. "You're barely on your feet. You wouldn't make it across the yard."

"If something happened, I have to go." He wouldn't give up, and Lori was done.

"No! Your place is here. If Shane said he'll be back, he'll be back. He's like you that way."

"I can't just sit here-"

"That's exactly what you do!" She snapped. "If you need to pray or cry or tell God he's cruel you go right ahead, but you're not leaving, Rick. Carl needs you here." She shook her head, and finished softly. "And I can't do this by myself. Not this one… _I can't_."

Nye looked away, feeling like an intruder on their argument. She shakily got up and made her way outside the room, going completely unnoticed by the two.

She just made it out of the room, when a voice startled her.

"Care to shower?"

Nye jumped hard enough to make herself dizzy, something the owner of the voice noticed.

"Oh sorry 'bout that." Maggie said and put a hand on Nye's arm, trying to steady her, and not noticing the way she tensed at the feel of a hand on her right arm.

"W-what was the question?" Nye asked timidly.

"Do you wanna shower?" Maggie repeated kindly.

Nye nearly choked on air, and quickly nodded, wanting to wash away the whole day.

Scratch that. The whole _week_.

Maggie nodded and went to get some of Beth's clothes for her to borrow, showing her to the bathroom afterwards.

"Okay, if you need anythin' just holler." And with that,, Maggie shut the bathroom door, leaving Nye to stand there, almost unsure of what to do.

She slowly started the water, and just about cried in relief when it was hot. She started carefully undressing, taking off her goggles for the first time in what felt like forever, and trying to avoid looking in the mirror, but that was futile.

Staring back at her in the reflection, was a battered and tired looking woman, one who bore a couple tattoos (A cluster of gears about the size of her palm under her left breast, and a holly flower on her right thigh.)

But she wasn't staring at the tattoos. She was staring at the multitude of scars on her right arm.

Starting at her elbow were long scars going down her arm, looking as if she had tried tearing the skin from her own arm several times in the past, and there were also a few faint burn scars to accompany them. But what was most concerning was the jagged scar going all around her right wrist.

She swallowed thickly at the sight of it, remembering all the times he had handcuffed her to a pipe on the heater, thinking about it now, she could still feel the heater burning her skin. Hours were spent in that house with her trying to escape the cuffs, only to tear her own skin apart in the effort.

She was snapped out of it when she could no longer see her reflection, the mirror fogged by the shower. She quickly shook her head of those thoughts and jumped in the stream of water, nearly moaning at the feel of it on her dirty and sun bruised skin.

She looked through the soaps and the shelves and smiled brightly when she saw the brand and same smell of body wash she used. What are the odds? Reaching for the 'Peaches and Daisies' body wash, her mind wandered to her boys, hoping Toby wasn't panicking too bad that she left her inhaler, and that Mason was behaving.

As she scrubbed her hair, she wondered why this felt so much more calming than taking a shower at the CDC, it was all the same, wasn't it? Soap and water, that's it.

But, as she looked around the bathroom, she knew what it was. This place is a home, while the CDC was a building. The CDC had dorms, not bedrooms, and all the soap in the bathrooms didn't have any fruity or floral smells, they were simply for getting clean. _This_ place actually felt lived in, as a home should feel.

And that was what made it different. The Greene home was just that, a home. And Nye wondered if she would ever get to have that with Mason and Toby again.

After her shower she made her way down the stairs, tugging the sleeve of her shirt (thank god Beth liked sweaters) further down her arms, basically covering her hands all the way down to her finger tips. As she got closer to the room Carl was in, she started to hear the conversation going on between Rick and Lori.

"…The Principal's car right out of the teacher's lot in the middle of a school day. Shane steps out of lunch and makes a beeline to Kingsley's Hyundai," Rick chuckled. "Wires the ignition, peels out, drives down Dylan Drive to that chicken farm out there. You've heard this before, right? So he pulls it into one of the big holding pens. Kingsley, he waxed that thing every month; had the auto shop vacuum it out every week. Shane, he parks it in this huge pen with a couple of hundred Rhode Island reds. He busts open bags of seed in the back seat, rolls down all the windows, and then starts sprinting back to school. It's three miles away easy… He's back in time to finish his sandwich before the bell. And then the bell rings. Shane gets up and when he runs into Kingsley in the hallway, he looks out the window and says "Principal Kingsley, your coupe's gone"." Rick chuckled again. And so did Nye in the hallway. "Coupe, like chicken coop."

"I get it." Lori responded, with a smile in her voice.

Nye slid down the wall, deciding they didn't need her at this point in time, but resolved to wait outside the room for when they did.

  
  


Inside the RV, Mason and Toby shared a look of discomfort at Carol's sobs. Neither of them could sleep in the first place, too worried about the others, but the crying was definitely helping to keep them wide awake.

They both peered back when hearing Daryl getting up. Andrea was taking apart her gun for what felt like the dozenth time, and glanced over at the hunter as well. The brothers exchanged a quick look and each got up from their spots on the driver and passenger seats.

He grabbed his crossbow, slinging it over his shoulder, and turned to Andrea.

"I need my clip now."

Andrea stayed silent and handed him his clip.

"I'm gonna walk the road, look for the girl." He explained, and both boys were immediately on board. And it seemed Andrea was too, as she followed him out, tailed by both boys.

"I'm coming too." She told him, and he nodded in return.

"We're coming-" Mason tried, but was cut off.

"Nah. No way in hell, I made a promise to your mom that nothin' would happen to ya. So stay in the RV." Daryl shut them down, giving them both a stern look.

Mason swelled in indignation, while Toby sagged in defeat.

"He's right. Why don't you two get back inside and sleep." Dale said from the roof.

They were both smart enough to not argue, and angrily trudged their way back inside, dragging their feet, and in Mason's case, swearing under their breath.

  
  


"Nye."

She looked up from the floor, staring at Maggie in question.

"There's a car." Maggie informed her, suspicion in her voice.

Both made their way to the porch, watching the yellow car get closer, and Nye was disappointed to see it wasn't Otis's truck.

She sagged slightly when she saw it was only Glenn and T-Dog getting out, and she was quick to note that T-Dog looked far worse than before.

They both got to the stairs to the porch and hesitated.

"So do we ring the bell? I mean it looks like people live here." Glenn asked, not noticing Nye and Maggie sitting on the bench on the side of the porch.

"We're past this kind of stuff, aren't we? Having to be considerate." T-dog rasped tiredly, cradling his arm in pain.

"Did you close the gate up the road when you drove in?" Maggie asked suddenly, making both men jump.

Glenn looked between her and Nye, clearly wondering who he should talk to first.

His very close friend who recently witnessed a child be shot… Or the hot farmer's daughter.

He chose wisely.

"Uh, hi. Yes, we closed it. Did the latch and everything." Glenn stuttered, staring at Maggie like she was a goddess.

And Nye had to agree. She totally was.

"Hello. Nice to see you again. We met before briefly." Glenn continued, clearly smitten with her, and Nye found it hilarious.

"Look, we came to help. There anything we can do?" T-Dog cut in, coughing under his breath.

Maggie looked at him in worry, eyes looking down at the bandage on his arm.

"It's not a bite. I cut myself pretty bad though." He quickly explained.

Nye stood and leaned against the railing, eyeing the seeping bandage. "Yep, broken car door."

Maggie accepted that with a nod. "We'll have it looked at. I'll tell them you're here."

Glenn suddenly pulled out a bag of pills, causing Nye's eyes to blow wide.

_When'd the holy fuck did we get those!?_

"We have some painkillers and antibiotics. I already gave him some… If Carl needs any…" He said softly, and after the day she had, the obvious worry for Carl on his face and in his voice made Nye almost break down.

What the hell did they do to deserve Glenn?

Maggie opened the door, holding it for them. "Come on inside. I'll make you something to eat."

But first, Glenn and T-Dog wanted to see Carl.

They made their way through the house, and when they all got to the room you could cut the tension with a knife, as both men looked at everyone silently sitting in the room.

But they looked at Carl most of all.

Glenn was the first to break the silence. "Hey…"

"Hey." Rick rasped back.

Glenn nodded and swallowed thickly. "Um, we're here, okay?"

Nye really did tear up this time.

"Thank you."

"Whatever you need." T-Dog added, and Rick simply nodded this time, too tired for anything more.

Both men left, but Nye stayed and leaned against the wall, blinking sluggishly.

_When was the last time I slept?_

She was brought out of it by Hershel's voice. "They don't get back soon, we're gonna have a decision to make."

"And that is?" Rick asked in a whisper.

"Whether to operate on your boy without the respirator."

Nye hung her head, not knowing what she would do in their shoes, God forbid.

"You said that wouldn't work." Lori whispered thickly.

"I know. It's extremely unlikely. But we can't wait much longer."

Lori got up, and ran out of the room. Rick slowly and shakily got up and followed her.

Nye, who was ready to eat a horse (Which there were plenty of on the farm) went down to the kitchen and dining room where she could hear T-Dog, Glenn and Maggie quietly talking.

And after everything she'd been through in the span of twenty four hours, the sight of Glenn literally stuffing his face with a PB&J sandwich made her wheeze a weak laugh.

It wasn't a pretty one either, it was the one that was rough and clearly a byproduct of exhaustion. But she didn't care about it at the moment. All she did care about was the bewildered look on Glenn's face that only made her laugh harder. And she slowly realized, she wasn't just laughing, but crying.

But that's when she heard it. Carl coughing.

She was stone faced and up the stairs in seconds.

Nye panted, crouching at the foot of the bed and stared at Carl with a one hundred watt smile.

"Where are we?" Carl asked hoarsely, eyes darting around the room.

Lori started to pet his hair, and Rick leaned over and gave him a reassuring smile. "Hey, little man. That's Hershel. We're in his house… You had an accident. All right?" He spoke slowly, as not to scare him.

Carl nodded and then winced "It h-hurts, a lot."

Nye's heart broke.

"Oh baby, I know. I know." Lori whispered as Rick fought tears.

"You should have seen it." Carl whispered to his mother.

"What?" She asked in return.

"The deer. It was so pretty, Mom. It was so close. I've never been…"

Nye body drained of all warmth as Carl's face went slack.

_No… No no no nononono-_

" _Carl_?" Rick asked shakily.

He started moving, but…

Rick and Lori watched in horror as Carl began seizing.

They reached to hold him down, but Nye and Hershel spoke at the same time.

"Stop!" Nye yelled desperately, grabbing Lori's sleeve.

"Don't. It's a seizure. If you hold him down, you could hurt him." Hershel warned them.

"You can't stop it?" Lori asked viciously.

"He has to just go through it." He explained tersely.

Lori turned and sobbed into Rick's chest, the man looking no better than his wife.

Suddenly, Carl stopped moving, and Hershel checked his pulse, and eyes with a pen light.

"His brain isn't getting enough blood. His pressure is bottoming. He needs another transfusion."

"Okay, I'm ready." Rick nodded steadily, determined to do whatever it took.

Hershel shook his head. "If I take any more out of you your body could shut down. You could go into a coma. Or cardiac arrest."

Rick ground his teeth, taking a step closer toward Hershel with a dangerous gleam in his eyes.

"Take it from me."

All eyes turned to Nye.

She licked her bottom lip nervously, hand subconsciously settling over her heart. "You've already taken some, so we know he won't react badly to my blood." She rolled up her sleeve, holding out her left arm. "Take as much as he needs, hell, take more than that. Whatever it takes to keep him alive."

Rick stared at her in overwhelming thankfulness. While Lori stared at her like she'd never seen her before.

  
  


_A door was swung open, hitting the wall beside it hard enough to leave a mark._

_Nye cowered._

_"Where the hell are you!" His voice boomed through the house, and Nye was sure that if they had any pictures anywhere they would have fallen over from the force of it._

_It didn't take him long to find her, after all, it wasn't like she had many spots left after so long trying to hide from him._

_He knew them all by now._

_She let out a blood curdling scream as he grabbed her by the hair and pulled her out from under the table. The smell of whiskey in his breath made her gag, as she thrashed in his grip and cried, hoping more than anything that her mom would come through the door and save her._

_But it never happened. Her mom was gone, had been from the beginning_

_Just then, she heard the familiar sound of chains clinking._

_She went solid, knowing it would only get worse if she fought._

_But as he took her to the heater, her self preservation kicked in, and she was thrashing once again._

_He was a six foot three grown man, and she was a tiny eight year old. Meaning, he overpowered her easily._

_He clicked the cuff around her right wrist, the one he always did, and as he locked the other one around a pipe on the heater, the metal 'click' was like a shot right through her heart, echoing in her mind and damning her to another panic attack. Before leaving, he turned the heater on, glaring at her hatefully._

_As she panted for breath, tears running down her face, trying in vain to get away from the growing heat, he shut and locked the door, shrouding her in darkness._

_What did she do to cause this?_

_She talked to the neighbor's kid._

  
  


"Someone needs to wake her."

She faintly heard voices coming in, and as she tried to open her eyes she found strong resistance.

_When did… when'd I fall asleep…?_

She felt a hand be put gently on her shoulder. "Nye… Nye, you gotta wake up."

She tried harder to open her eyes, and actually succeeded that time. She blurrily looked around at everyone, and thanked God she was a silent sleeper during nightmares.

"He's still losing blood faster than we can replace it. And with the swelling in his abdomen we can't wait any longer or he's just going to slip away." Hershel told them, point blank.

She slowly sat up, happy the act didn't make her head swim much.

"Now I need to know right now if you want me to do this, because I think your boy is out of time… You have to make a choice."

"A choice?" Lori repeated venomously.

"A choice." Rick nodded, turning to Lori. "You have to tell me what it is… _You have to tell me what it is_." He whispered.

Lori put a hand up to Rick's face, staring at him like they were silently communicating. "We do it." She whispered, eyes not leaving Rick's.

He nodded, pulling her into a hug.

Nye took a deep breath, steeling herself for the horror they were about to see.

Hershel and Patricia rolled in a metal table, and Hershel immediately starting giving orders.

"Okay, get the corner of that bed. Let's get the sheets down. Get the IV bag on the sheet." They all grabbed a part of the sheet Carl was laying on. "Okay, on three. One, two, three." They all lifted him onto the table, Nye's knees almost buckling from the exhaustion of it all hitting her at once.

Patricia pulled out a pan with medical tools laying inside and a lamp for lighting.

Nye slowly put her gloves on as Hershel addressed the two parents. "Rick, Lori, you may want to step out."

They looked hesitant, and rightfully so, as Nye would have to be dragged out while kicking and screaming to leave Ace or Smalls' side.

They all froze however, when they heard tired on gravel, and car doors slamming.

"Oh God." Rick whispered, staring out the window.

Nye wasn't sure when it happened, but she could feel the tears of relief running down her face.

"You stay here with him." Hershel ordered Nye and Patricia, and quickly followed Rick and Lori as they ran out to help Shane with the medical equipment.

But Nye had to see for herself, so she ran down after them.

The cool air on her skin felt like heaven as she ran out the door. She took in the scene before her, and her mood was quickly stomped down when she saw Otis wasn't there.

It was clear Hershel noticed the same thing. "Otis?"

Shane shook his head. "No." He said so softly Nye almost missed it.

Hershel looked devastated, but still held his head. "We say nothing to Patricia. Not 'til after. I need her."

Shane turned to Rick. "They kept blocking us man… A-at every turn. We had nothing left. We were down to ten rounds. Then he said-he said he'd cover me a-and that I should keep going. So that's what I did. I just… I kept going. But I-I looked back and he-" He choked up. "I tried." Shane whispered despairingly.

Rick put his hand on his friend's shoulder. "He wanted to make it right."

Nye carefully put an arm around Maggie's back, rubbing soothing circles into it.

  
  


Both boys were jolted awake as Carol swung the door open, crying as she went and laid back down.

With just one look between the two, they both silently agreed that Daryl and Andrea must have come back empty handed.

As the door opened again, they looked to see Daryl coming in, he looked tired and temporarily defeated, so when he made eye contact with them, they both gave him silent waves.

But Toby looked between the crying Carol and the guilty Daryl, and felt the need to say something.

"You'll find her."

It was nothing more than a whisper, but the confidence in his voice made something flicker on in Daryl's eyes.

He was starting to get why she liked these boys so much.


	7. Rainbow sprinkles

It was one of the most beautiful mornings she'd seen in a long time. The sunlight wasn't smoldering, the bugs and birds weren't up and being insanely noisy yet, the air felt slightly damp and smelled fresh, and the grass glittered from the morning dew.

She twirled a loose strand of string from her shorts around her fingers absentmindedly, watching the dirt road in front of her intently. Everything went smoothly the night before, and now Carl was expected to make a full recovery. But, that left them with their first problem.

Sophia.

Thoughts of how she was doing out there all on her own ran wild in Nye's mind, and she found herself looking in the distance, and over to Glenn and T-Dog helping the Greene family set up a grave site for Otis, even though they didn't have his body.

She shuddered at the thought of how it probably looked now, images of Ed and others from camp came to mind, and how they found their mangled remains.

And then, the unwelcomed thought about that happening to Sophia came.

She shook that thought away, and quickly stood up from the bench on the porch when she could have sworn she heard…

_Yep, Dixon._

The caravan being led by the redneck on the noisiest motorcycle she ever heard.

She ran down to open the fence for them, which honestly was not a good idea with how much blood she gave. But after getting some food and sleeping for the longest she had in weeks, she felt almost back to full strength.

She opened the gate, waving sarcastically at Daryl and peering through the windows of the passing cars for Mason and Toby.

She grinned when she spotted them in the backseats of Pumpkin, but the grin dimmed slightly when she saw it was Andrea driving her. She did not like when other people drove her baby.

As everyone parked in front of the house, Mason and Toby didn't even wait for the van to come to a complete stop to jump out and dash to Nye.

She slowed her pace back to the house from the fence, and opened her arms wide, once again taking the force of their combined tackle.

They immediately bombarded her with everything.

"We were in the woods, staying with the group, like you said-"

"Then this chick showed up and beat the shit out of this Walker on Andrea and took Lori-"

"Then we went back to the highway, and after dark Daryl and Andrea went and looked for Sophia-"

"Daryl didn't let us come help! He just-"

"Said he promised to keep us safe, so we couldn't go, but then-"

"Guys!"

Both boys stopped talking after her shout, taking the much needed breath between their nonstop chatter.

Nye smiled lightly. "I get the gist. Are you okay?"

They both nodded, but Mason eagerly started up again.

"Yeah, Daryl kept us safe."

Nye wasn't sure what to say to that, so she simply nodded. Taking their hands, she lead them up to the house, where by this point, everyone was making their way to.

And when she caught Daryl's eye, she mouthed a quick 'Thanks'.

He nodded in return.

Rick, Lori and the others came out of the house, and Dale was the first to ask.

"How is he?" The older man anxiously wrung his hat in his hands.

"He'll pull through, thanks to Hershel and his people, Nye too." Lori assured, her voice wobbling.

Toby elbowed her in the side, and she ruffled his hair in response.

"And Shane. We'd have lost Carl if not for him." Rick tacked on, sending a nod to his best friend, who was standing a fair distance from everyone else.

"The hell happened to Shane?" Mason whispered to Nye.

She grimaced, and looked over at the almost jumpy looking man, not having any idea of what happened herself. Hell, he made her nearly have a heart attack, walking out of the bathroom the night before. He only shaved his head, and still managed to look like a total stranger.

Dale came forward and silently hugged Rick, while Carol went to Lori and hugged her. "Thank God. We were so worried."

"How'd it happen?" Dale asked in concern.

"Hunting accident. That's all. Just a stupid accident." Rick shook his head slowly, eyes glassy from exhaustion.

Patricia leaned and tearily whispered something in Hershel's ear, he nodded and turned to the group.

"We're havin' a ceremony for Otis. If you all would join us."

Nye sighed, once again feeling bad for the man the family lost.

The group all agreed, feeling they owed the Greene's at least that much. Hershel went and put on a suit and grabbed a bible, and just like that, they were quickly over by the grave site the Greene's set up, standing in a circle around it.

The boys, to her surprise, ran over and stood to the right of Daryl, causing the two adults to share a bewildered look. Nevertheless, she took the spot next to them, standing with her boys between Daryl and Glenn. She decided to follow Dale and Glenn's example, and took off her goggles. And after getting weirded out looks from Daryl and Glenn, she realized this was probably the first time the group had seen her without them on. It made sense to look surprised she supposed, just like how when you meet someone with glasses, and after knowing them for awhile, you see them without them on, and it just doesn't look right.

"Blessed be God, father of our lord Jesus Christ." Hershel started, and Beth put a rock in the pile they made for Otis. "Praise be to him for the gift of our brother Otis." Now Jimmy put one down. "for his span of years, for his abundance of character, Otis, who gave his life to save a child's, now more than ever, our most precious asset. We thank you, God, for the peace he enjoys in your embrace. He died as he lived, in Grace."

It was beautiful. Nye just wished it were real. But she lost faith in God a long time ago, right after she started to maybe believe. And all it had taken was having her most precious person ripped away.

But, then again…

She squeezed Mason and Toby's shoulders, and pulled them closer.

"Shane, will you speak for Otis?" Hershel asked, and Shane seemed to snap out of some daze.

"I-I'm not good at it… I'm sorry…" It was spoken so softly Nye almost couldn't hear it.

"You were the last one with him." Patricia spoke, choked up with tears. "You shared his final moments. Please. I need to hear. I need to know his death had meaning." She finished thickly.

Shane nodded jerkily in relent. "Okay." He breathed, and raised his head. "We were about done… Almost out of ammo. We were down to pistols by then. I was limping. It was bad. Ankle all swollen up. ' _We've got to save the boy.'_ See, that's what he said. He gave me his backpack. He shoved me ahead. ' _Run,'_ He said, ' _I'll take the rear. I'll cover you.'_ And when I looked back…" He paused, and started limping to the rock pile. "If not for Otis, I'd have never made it out alive. And that goes for Carl too. It was Otis. He saved us both." He looked up, locking eyes with Patricia. "If any death ever had meaning, it was his."

He put the last rock in the pile.

  
  


Nye took a deep breath of air, not because she needed it, but because it was so fresh, and smelled great, almost like the fragrance aisle in a supermarket threw up. In a good way.

She forgot how beautiful mornings could be. After the funeral for Otis, everyone went their separate ways, and Nye was currently sitting on the porch, enjoying the feeling of the fresh air and sun on her face, until an abrupt interruption.

"Hey."

_Damnit Dixon._

She lazily opened her eyes, and simply raised a brow at him.

He, in return, threw something to her.

She jumped and (much to her humiliation) squeaked in surprise. Her hand instinctively snatched the thing out of the air before it hit her in the face.

"The hell dude?" She asked angrily, flushed from the embarrassment of making such a noise.

He merely nodded to the thing in her hand and said, "Kid asked for me to get it to ya."

Her brows furrowed, and she looking down at the item. Upon seeing what it was, she let out a puzzled noise.

"Why'd he want you to give me my inhaler, and not do it himself?"

He shrugged, honestly having no idea either. All he knew was the two kids jumped him, throwing the inhaler to him, and darting off right after, Toby shouting "Give this to her, kay thanks bye!" over his shoulder. Daryl had had no time to ask questions or refuse.

Nye raised her brow skeptically, but dropped it quickly, seeing no reason for him to lie about it.

Besides, her kids did weird things all the time, she was used to it by this point.

"Thanks Dixon." She muttered after a pause, fidgeting with the inhaler to avoid having to look him in the eyes.

Mason and Toby, who were hiding behind a tree nearby, fist bumped upon hearing that.

Daryl didn't offer more than a short nod, turning on his heel to go and get ready to go out and search the woods for the missing girl.

What the two adults didn't know, was that this was the boys' first step in their scheme to make Nye and Daryl friends.

  
  


"How long has this girl been lost?" Hershel asked.

Nye, Daryl, Rick, Shane, Andrea and Hershel stood around the hood of Carol's car, planning for the search for Sophia.

"This'll be day three." Rick answered grimly.

Maggie walked up, carrying something paper. "County survey map." She rolled it out over the hood, and they used rocks as paper weights. "Shows terrain and elevations."

"This is perfect. We can finally get this thing organized. We'll grid the whole area, start searching in teams." Rick said.

"Not you. Not today. You and her gave four units of blood. You wouldn't be hiking five minutes in this heat before passing out." He said to Rick and Nye before turning to Shane. "And your ankle. Push it now, you'll be laid up a month, no good to anybody."

"Guess it's just me." Daryl said, not seeming too worried.

But Nye shook her head. "Nope, I'm fine, I can go too."

Hershel opened his mouth to argue, but Nye cut him off.

"I'm fine Doc, I've been drinking juice and napping all day. I'm telling you, I'm good to go."

Clearly seeing she wouldn't back off of this, he relented. Likely because of how little blood she gave in comparison to Rick.

If only he knew how much even that small amount still affected her.

Daryl looked between the two, waiting a moment to see if he would try again to stop her, but it seemed he gave up.

"So, what's the plan?" Nye asked Daryl cheerily, clearly putting effort into giving him a chance after everything he'd done for her and her boys throughout the past few days.

He looked down and scanned the map, and pointed to a seemingly random part of it. "We're gonna head back to the creek, work our way from there."

"I can still be useful. I'll drive up to the interstate, see if Sophia wandered back." Shane added.

"All right, tomorrow then. We'll start doing this right." Rick said determinedly.

"That means we can't have our people out there with just knives. They need the gun training we've been promising them." Shane pointed out.

"I'd prefer you not carrying guns on my property. We've managed so far without turning this into an armed camp." Hershel told them sternly.

"All due respect," Shane started, not sounding respectful at all. "You get a crowd of those things wandering in here…"

"Look, we're guests here." Rick interrupted his friend. "This is your property," He said to Hershel, and then looked at Shane pointedly. "And we will respect that." And with that, he put his Colt Python down on the hood of the car.

Shane rolled his eyes aggressively, but put down his gun as well.

Nye sighed through her nose, and grudgingly put down her pistol. At least she could still hold onto her monkey wrench.

"First things, first. Set camp, find Sophia." Rick declared.

Shane bit his lip. "I hate to be the one to ask, but somebody's got to. What happens if we find her and she's bit?"

Nye's jaw dropped, and she gave him her best glare, the one that up until this point was reserved for Daryl when he did something exceptionally stupid in her opinion, and pissed her off in the process.

"Fuck you, Shane." She whispered under her breath, but not quietly enough apparently, as he shot her a quick glare.

He continued his sentence, pointedly ignoring what he heard. "I think we should all be clear on how we handle that."

Rick was silent for a few seconds, but when he answered, it made Nye's stomach roll.

"You do what has to be done."

 _Yeah Rick? And what if it were Carl?_ Nye wanted to challenge, but didn't have the heart to, knowing said boy was still laid up after being _shot_.

"And her mother? What do you tell her?" Maggie asked in disbelief.

"The truth." Andrea told the other woman unflinchingly, and Nye scoffed.

"Like it's that easy? It's her _daughter_." Nye pursed her lips, narrowed eyes flickering from Andrea and back to Shane.

"It's not like there would be anything for us to do," Andrea pointed out, hands on her hips. "Ending it would be the only option."

Nye was too busy fuming to notice the tension rolling off of Hershel and Maggie.

"Alright ladies, settle down." Shane raised his hands patronizingly, then turned to Hershel. "I'll gather and secure all the weapons. Make sure no one's carrying till we're at a practice range off site. I do request one rifleman on lookout. Dale's got experience."

When Hershel stayed silent, Rick spoke up. "Our people would feel safer, less inclined to carry a gun."

Hershel slowly nodded, still not looking too keen on the idea.

"Thank you."

Daryl tapped Nye's arm, and when she looked at him questioningly he merely nodded to the woods. She nodded back, but quickly muttered "One sec." and jogged over to Mason and Toby, who were trying to climb one of the large trees on the Greene's property.

"Hey!"

Both jumped, slipping from where they had managed to climb so far, and glared at her as a result.

Nye snorted at their reaction, and quickly explained the situation. "Dixon and I are heading out to look for Soph, I want you to stay with Dale while I'm gone. Okay?"

Instead of arguing that they wanted to go with them to search, both boys surprisingly smiled agreeingly, and shared a secretive glance after.

"Yeah, no problem, stay safe." Toby said, grinning like he did whenever he got away with something.

Nye furrowed her brows, staring the two down, but it was clear whatever they were up to wasn't something she was going to be informed on.

With a resigned sigh and faint shrug, she made an 'I'm watching you' gesture and turned to follow after where Daryl had wandered off to.

"Daryl, Nye." Rick called to them as they were leaving, jogging over so he wouldn't have to shout.

Both of them looked up from their walk to the woods, and stared at Rick silently, waiting for whatever he had to say.

"You okay on your own?" He asked, walking closer to them, looking between the two. He still wasn't completely settled in with the group, but he had seen how the two in particular acted towards each other, that being, not the most amicable.

"I'm better on my own." Daryl replied, staring at Nye pointedly.

She stuck her tongue out at him in return.

"We'll be back before dark." Daryl said as they kept walking.

"Hey. We got a base. We can get this search properly organized now." Rick continued, following them behind.

Daryl stopped and turned to him. "You got a point or are we just chattin'?"

"My point is, it lets you off the hook. You don't owe us anything."

Daryl bit his lip, before turning back and continued walking. "My other plans fell through."

_Well that doesn't sound fishy at all._

"Nye," Rick turned to her, making the short woman tense. "You don't have to do this either."

"What?"

The former sheriff sighed through his nose. "I owe you everything for helping with Carl- and don't try to underplay it," He cut her off with a raised hand. "You should be resting after what happened. You can help tomorrow, and with planning, but…"

Nye frowned faintly, a bit self conscious as she noticed Daryl had stopped a short distance away, clearly still able to hear the conversation. "She needs us to find her Rick. I am tired and sore, sure, but she's more important. If me being out there too helps even a fraction of a percent of us finding her, I'll do it. So, yeah." She trailed off lamely, lightly punching Rick in the shoulder, before turning and running out to the woods, leaving Daryl to catch up with her.

It didn't take them long to be in the thick of the foliage, and it took even less time for Nye to try and drive Daryl crazy, (but not too crazy, they did need to find Sophia after all) out of boredom. So far she had pulled out all the stops (meaning 'eye-spy' over and over) and was surprised it hadn't worked. The stoic man had remained silent for the whole duration of their search, not breaking once to even tell her to shut up.

She had just contented herself to finally be quiet, when he spoke up for the first time on their trip.

"You really think we'll find her, or are you like the others?"

_Oh hell no._

Nye froze midstep, and it took him a second to see she wasn't keeping pace. When he turned around, he was met with a fierce glare.

"Let me put it this way, _Dixon_." She said viciously while marching up to him. "If Carl hadn't been shot, you wouldn't have been able to tear me out of these woods to stop searching." She was only a foot away now, trying her best to stare him down, which considering she was a whole head shorter then him, was rather difficult. "Sophia's older than Mason and Toby, and I know if it were one of them out here, they would be _fine_." She stepped back and scoffed. "I mean, this is Georgia, not Arkham Asylum or some shit."

Something in his expression shifted at that, but she was already continuing on. Nye stopped, however, only after walking a few yards.

"Dixon." She called, not taking her eyes off of something in the distance.

He stepped beside her, following her line of sight.

A house. An old dilapidated house.

One Sophia could very well be hiding in.

Without a word, they both started making their way to it. And when they got to the door, before Nye could even suggest picking the lock if need be, Daryl kicked it down.

"Seriously?" She whispered, giving him a severely unimpressed look, and she started wondering if he got off on kicking doors down.

He ignored her, taking the lead and slowly going around corners of the house with his crossbow raised and ready.

Nye took a few steps in and cringed when the floorboards creaked loudly. As Daryl scoped the house for Walkers, or preferably Sophia, she followed after him with her wrench high.

They entered what looked like an old kitchen, one that she noted smelled like roadkill. Daryl spotted something in the trash can, which she was sure was the cause of the smell.

"Oh god, what are you doing?" She asked in disgust as he pulled something out of it.

Her question was answered when he held up a recently opened can of tuna.

Her jaw dropped and her heart started beating rapidly when she saw it, sharing hopeful looks with Daryl. The thought that they might be able to bring Sophia back to her mom by tonight made Nye beyond excited.

Both of them quickly noticed the cupboard, the cupboard big enough to house a child. And after exchanging a quick look, Nye crept closer to it, gently wrapping her fingers around the door handle.

She waited for confirmation, and when Daryl gave a nod, she swung it open.

They both deflated slightly when they were only met with shelves of old food. But when she saw him staring down at the bottom, she followed his gaze.

A pillow and blanket sat innocently in the bottom of the cupboard, the space there was just big enough for a child Sophia's size.

Without warning Daryl ran outside the house, causing Nye to roll her eyes.

"C'mon Dixon, a little communication would be nice." She muttered bitterly.

"Sophia!" He yelled out into the woods, and if it were any other time, she would have hit him upside the head for potentially attracting some of the undead.

He walked further out through the thick, uncut grass. "Sophia!"

Nye thought 'why the hell not' and joined him. "Sophia!"

They walked around the perimeter of the dilapidated house, searching for any signs of the young girl, but Nye stopped when Daryl crouched down near some random bush.

She jogged over. "You find something?" She asked eagerly between huffs of breath.

He gestured to the white flowers growing in the bush. "Know what these are?" He asked, clearly knowing the answer, and wanting to see if she did.

She nodded, confused as to how this had to do with anything. "Uh, yeah. They're Cherokee roses, I think."

"You know the story 'bout 'em?"

She paused for a second, combing her mind for it.

And when she did, a wide grin took hold of her features as she remembered the old story she was once told in college by her best friend, Paul.

"Dixon, cherish this,"

He looked up at her in confusion.

"You're a fucking genius."

She chose to ignore the unamused look on his face.

After he plucked one for Carol, they combed the area one more time before leaving. And the more time she was given to think on it, the more something gnawed at her mind, there was question Nye needed answered.

"So why'd you stay?"

Daryl paused, looking back at her questioningly.

"With Merle gone, and all this shit happening… You asked me if I think we'll find her, so I'm asking you something, why'd you stay?" She clarified and finished, genuinely curious.

He chewed on his bottom lip, looking at the greenery around them for a second.

"At first… I dunno, I just did." He slowly started.

"Then what?" She prompted.

He looked back at her, a determined gleam in his eyes. "Then Sophia went missin'. Couldn't just walk away after that." He finished strongly.

Nye wasn't sure what the right answer would be. Until he said it.

It didn't take them long to get back to the farm, even after all the stops to check if some spots on the ground were tracks from a Walker, an animal, or hopefully, Sophia.

As soon as they got back, they went their separate ways.

Daryl searching for a bottle to put the Cherokee rose in, that he planned to give to Carol (which Nye teased him mercilessly about on their way back) and Nye left to go find Mason and Toby.

As soon as they spotted her from the bench swing, they waved her over eagerly.

"Hey, what did you two get up to while I was gone?" She asked in a mock stern voice, putting her hands on her hips.

They both laughed softly at her antics, and Toby leaned forward and grinned at her like the Cheshire Cat. "Nothing really. What did _you_ get up to?"

Nye blinked, wrong-footed, as Toby grinned smugly and Mason waggled his eyebrows.

"Well, uh, pretty much nothing." She drew out the last word in confusion. And for some reason the two looked disappointed by that answer.

Probably hoping for news on Sophia.

She cleared her throat. "So, I miss anything?"

The two shared a look, one that spoke of nothing but the glee a child gets when they get to snitch on someone else.

Mason stared at her and casually said,

"Glenn was Walker-bait."

  
  


"Glenn Rhee!"

The man in question jumped violently, and quickly spun around, staring in fear at the raging woman coming at him.

"Nye? Wha-"

"What the holy fuck were you thinking!?" She cut him off furiously.

Glenn froze. "W-wait, how did you find out?" He demanded in a hushed voice, looking around anxiously.

Nye reeled back, bemused. "You seriously think I wouldn't get told?"

Glenn stared at her in shock. "I had no idea you and Maggie were that close already."

Now she was even more confused. "What? Mason and Toby told me-"

Glenn paled, suddenly looking like he swallowed a frog.

"-you were "Walker Bait". Please tell me they're joking." She said in a threatening tone, not noticing how he deflated in relief. "Because I know you're not _that_ stupid."

He rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. "Uh, _yeah_. I kinda was."

Nye fumed silently for a second at the admittance.

"I thought you were talking about me having sex with Maggie." He laughed nervously.

Nye's hands fell from where they rested on her hips. "Whoa whoa wait! You had sex with Maggie!?"

Glenn tried shushing her, but she wasn't having it.

She tipped her head back. "Damnit! How are you so lucky?" She whined. "I mean, Southern Belle's are the best!"

Glenn froze. "W-wait… Nye, a-are you…?"

She raised a questioning brow.

"You know… Gay?" He finished, whispering the last word.

Nye snorted, shaking her head. "No, I'm not gay." She said between chuckles.

Glenn sagged slightly. "O-oh, cause I just thought…"

Nye shook her head, shaking from silent laughter as she turned and started walking away. She couldn't even stay mad at him for ten minutes it seemed, but she didn't want to fall into a conversation with him to broadcast that she was no longer angry.

"Yeah, not gay. Just bi." She casually said behind her back, watching over her shoulder in amusement as it looked like Glenn's jaw might hit the ground as he stuttered incoherently.

By the time he was able to form actual words, she was several yards away, and what he yelled made her breakdown in laughter.

"A-and there's _nothing_ wrong with that!"

What did she do to deserve a friend like Glenn?

  
  


She gently opened the door, and smiled cheerfully when she saw he was awake.

"Hey Chief."

Carl sat up slightly when she came in. "Hey Nye." He said as cheerfully as a bedridden kid could.

She walked further into the room, coming to a stop and sitting on the chair by his bedside. "I seem to recall making a deal with you."

Carl made a confused noise. "You did? When?"

Nye shifted in her seat, staring down at her hands. "When you were unconscious. I made a deal with you, that if you got better, then I'd tell you my name."

Carl sat up further. "Nye's not your name?"

She shook her head. "Nope, Nye's just a nickname."

He leaned forward eagerly, and tried to mask the wince it caused. "So then what is your name then?"

She grinned, cupping her hand over her mouth and leaned over to whisper it in his ear.

Afterwards, he reeled back, staring at her in amusement. "Really?" He asked between giggles.

She nodded with a helpless shrug.

He sat back, seeming satisfied. "Why don't you tell everyone?"

She winced. "Well, it may have to do with the fact it's a batshit insane name. Seriously, have you ever met another person named that?"

Carl slowly shook his head. "No, but I think that's a good thing," He suddenly got sulky. "I mean, there was, like, seventeen Carl's in my school."

Nye snorted, patting him on the shoulder lightly. "That must have been a nightmare." She leaned back, and gained a thoughtful look. "I guess its better than a name like Mary Sue or something," She laughed once more. "Mary Sue's are the worst."

  
  


_"Miss Conner, I'm sorry to call you here like this, but I really had no choice."_

_It was only eight months since Toby was placed in Nye's care, and she was already standing in the principal's office._

_Nye stared at the portly middle aged man sitting behind his desk, before turning her stare on the two kids sitting in front of it._

_At the man's apology, giving away her presence, Mason shot his head up to her still form in the doorway, while Toby hung his head further._

_"What happened?" She cut right to the chase._

_"Well, you see-" The principal tried._

_"Not you." She cut the man off, not taking her eyes away from the two kids._

_Toby sank lower, not meeting her gaze, causing her to scowl in suspicion._

_"Well, Miss Conner, they've already told me everything, if you'd let me explain-" The principal continued irritably._

_"Fine. Explain." She said, sounding bored._

_The principal swelled in indignation. "They got into a fight with another student."_

_Nye simply blinked for a second._

_"He deserved it." Mason muttered, earning another glare from the principal._

_She took a deep breath, and the man smiled smugly, thinking she was about to chew them out._

_He was wrong._

_"Did you do the right hook I taught you?" She asked Mason, almost sounding eager._

_The principal sputtered as she gave the boy a thumbs up when he grinned and nodded._

_"Miss Conner!"_

_She lazily lolled he head, looking at him in question._

_"You do not praise a child for starting a fight-"_

_"But I didn't start it!" Mason yelled._

_Nye watched in worry as Toby seemed to sink further and further into his chair._

_"What_ did _start it?" She finally asked._

_Mason, who had been ready to gloat about his fight seconds before, clammed up. And Nye didn't miss the way his eyes darted to Toby._

_"Mason started the violence." The principal told her._

_She tipped her head back in an 'Ohhhh, I get it' fashion. "The_ violence… _So what you're saying is, it was another kid who was mouthing off." It wasn't a question, and she could tell by the dark look on Mason's face, that she just hit the nail on the head_

_Before the man could say anything, Nye turned back to the boys. "What'd they call Toby." She asked, easily deducing Toby had been the one being bullied, going off the two's behavior._

_Said boy jumped, and the other looked between his foster brother and mother._

_He took a deep breath, avoiding Toby's pleading gaze. "The F word…"_

_Nye reeled back an inch._ Fucker? What a little shit, and it's not even that create-

_Realization of what Mason really meant took hold, and she slowly looked at Toby, who was now trembling._

_"Toby…" She said his name in a searching sort of way, hoping he would deny what Mason was saying, deny a kid so young would go so far._

_But he only hung his head._

_"Well it doesn't matter what the kid sai-" The principal finally spoke up, but was once again foiled._

_"I'm taking them home. And they're not getting a single day of detention." Nye snapped, glowering at the man._

_"You don't have that kind of authority Miss Conner." He growled back._

_She grinned, but it looked more like baring teeth. "No, but I can make claims of sexual assault."_

_He paled, and both boys whipped their heads up and stared at her in shock. Toby finally willing to look at her._

_"Y-you wouldn't." He said, not sounding all that convinced himself. Especially with the manic gleam in her eyes, a gleam that promised pain if he didn't do as she said._

_It seemed Miss Conner was willing to stoop to any level, if it made things easier for her kids._

_"I'll throw in the fact you're being biased with punishing my kids, because you're homophobic. The local press will go_ crazy _." She finished confidently, her canines almost appearing sharper with her threatening grin._

_With that, she gently grabbed her boys wrists and dragged their shocked forms out of the office. It wasn't until they were getting into her van that one of them spoke._

_"That was awesome." Mason blurted in awe, as he and his brother hopped into the back._

_Nye gave a tight grin, that quickly fell away. She looked over her shoulder to Toby, who was still silent._

_"Dairy Queen, or Wendy's?"_

_Both looked at her in confusion, but Mason quickly caught on, and he smiled happily._

_Seeing Toby was still unsure of what she was talking about, she clarified. "For ice cream."_

_Toby stared at her like she had grown a second head. "W-what?"_

_Nye grinned, coming up with a good and subtle enough way to try and make him more at ease. "I vote Dairy Queen, the chick who runs the cashier is hot as hell."_

_What she said didn't seem to sink in at first, but when it did, Toby stared at her like he expected her to yell 'Just kidding!' any second._

_But she didn't, she just stared back through the rear view mirror._

_And when they got Dairy Queen, Nye asked for rainbow sprinkles on all of their ice cream._

_Mason laughed, Toby cried._

_But they were all happy._

_And that, was the first time Toby felt truly at home._

  
  


Her eyes flew open, blinking sluggishly for a few seconds, she sat up from her slumped position in their tent, yawning and stretching. Nye sighed and cracked her neck, carefully putting a book mark in her copy of Breaking Dawn sitting on her lap.

_Damn, fell asleep reading that garbage again._

The only reason she was reading it in the first place was because Mason dared her to, back before the shit hit the fan, and she'd be damned to back out now. She however would never admit to finding the Twilight book series rather entertaining, in a trashy soap opera kind of way.

_I'm gonna get those damn Batman stickers he bet._

She looked back on the dream, or rather _memory_ , she had. It was probably brought about by Glenn's questioning and her talking about her sexuality. And while it was something she was still a little closed off about (no matter how confident she seemed on the outside) she always tried giving a good example to Toby.

The more confident she seemed, the easer it felt for him to tell people, and that made it all worth it.

She looked over at the two sleeping forms on the other side of the tent, smiling softly upon seeing Toby snuggling his face into Button, and Mason cuddled up with Manny (even though it now only covered about half of him)

Her goggles were set aside, and she slowly and quietly took off her belt and combat boots she fell asleep in.

And as she drifted back off, her last thoughts were of Sophia, and how she was determined to bring her home to Carol, no matter what, even if Nye had to break bones in the process.

But with that thought, what she didn't know, was that she had just jinxed herself and Daryl for tomorrow's search.


	8. Fair chance

_She tapped her fingers against the steering wheel to the beat of 'Under Pressure' coming softly out of the stereo. Craning her head around, she once again took in all of the cars and people surrounding them on the highway to Atlanta._

_"Nye, why aren't we moving?" Toby asked in anxious concern._

_Mason nodded along in question, as he stared at the cars all around them with a crease pinched between his brows. Both boys were clearly able to read the tension, especially after they stopped by the house of a close family friend, only for Nye to step back out covered in specks of blood, carrying a gore coated monkey wrench._

_She released her tight grip on the steering wheel slightly, taking a breath to calm her own nerves and turned in her seat to address both of them. "I don't know. Maybe-"_

_Whatever she was going to say would forever be a mystery, as all three quickly looked out the windows when they heard what sounded like the approach of a fleet of helicopters._

_A quick and firm glance was given to the two boys, pinning them to their seats for fear of stressing Nye out further than she already was. The driver side door swung open and she jumped out. Her eyes locked on the three helicopters flying toward the city of Atlanta._

_"-They wouldn't."_

_At the sound of the gruff voice she turned her head to the blue truck next to her van, the one it came from. And saw two men standing against it._

_"Hell yeah they would, baby brother." The guy next to the first one replied grimly._

_She furrowed her brows in confusion at what they meant, and the grim looks on their faces as they stared at the helicopters flying over their supposed safe haven._

_That is, until the first bomb dropped._

_Her hands flew up to her mouth, her eyes becoming glassy as she watched bomb after bomb hit the city before them._

_And as she stood there, stunned silent, she would remember how the night air chilled her nose, how the stars shined brightly despite the chaos going on under them, how the people around her started screaming and panicking, and how Mason and Toby watched her in fear through the window as she leaned against her van, tears streaming down her face, eyes locked on the burning city._

_She would remember all of it, whenever she heard the song 'Under Pressure'._

  
  


Nye slowly made her way over to the car they apparently made their headquarters for planning Sophia's rescue. She lightly tugged on the overly long sleeves of her thin beige pullover. As she leaned over the hood of the car on her elbows, it took every bit of her strength to not make a joke about how Daryl was actually wearing something he hadn't torn the sleeves off of. Every person had their limits, and with how cold it was quickly becoming, she wasn't shocked to see he had reached his.

"All right, everyone's getting new search grids today. If she made it as far as the farmhouse Daryl and Nye found, she might have gone further east than we've been so far." Rick told them as they were standing around the hood, the grid map laid flat on top of it.

Nye yawned, not rested as well as she might have hoped, but Sophia's life was unquestionably more important than Nye getting a few extra hours in.

"I'd like to help. I know the area pretty well and stuff." Jimmy said, looking to Rick for the man's approval.

"Hershel's okay with this?" Rick asked.

"Yeah, yeah. He said I should ask you" Jimmy nodded, his eyes shifting away.

Nye wasn't convinced, not even close, she could spot a lying kid from a mile away.

But either Rick believed him, or he didn't care. "All right then. Thanks."

Shane chose to open his mouth, much to the ever growing annoyance of Nye. "Nothing about what Daryl found screams Sophia to me. Anyone could have been holed up in that farmhouse."

She scowled heavily at him when he refused to acknowledge that she was the one who spotted the house.

"Anybody includes her, right?" Andrea defended.

"Whoever slept in that cupboard was no bigger than yay-high." Daryl added, holding his hand up to his middle.

"Someone Nye's size could fit in there too, then." Shane said snidely.

"Fuck you, Shane." She said through gritted teeth, and by the way he smirked in amusement, he obviously didn't take her seriously. In fact, it looked like he was heavily enjoying himself at her expense.

"Alright, that's enough." Rick said crossly, shooting Nye a silent look.

She huffed, biting her tongue at the smug sneer he slipped her out of Rick's sight.

"It's a good lead." Andrea continued.

Nye gestured to the blonde in a "see, told you" fashion, before nodding in greeting to Dale as he set the bag of guns down on the hood of the car. He smiled at most of them, excluding a certain former sheriff's deputy.

"Maybe we'll pick up her trail again." Rick suggested, looking over the map with a heavy stare. It was obvious how badly he wanted to find her.

"No maybe about it. I'm gonna borrow a horse, head up to this ridge right here, take a bird's-eye view of the whole grid. If she's up there, I'll spot her." Daryl told them his plan, pointed out a specific part of the map.

"Room on that horse for two?" Nye asked him politely, making an effort to keep her face open and inviting.

She ignored the surprised looks she was given, but after Mason and Toby cornered her earlier that morning, she was trying to be at least civil.

 _"What? Why the hell do you want me to try and be_ mature _with Dixon?" She had asked in disbelief. "What do you even mean by that?"_

_The two boys had shared an exasperated glance._

_"For one, you're an adult, act like it." Toby said bluntly._

_"And B, you'd like him if you got to know him, you're both actually a lot alike." Mason finished._

_Nye stuck her tongue out. "Ew, don't say stuff like that, the day I'm anything like Dixon is the day I eat squirrel."_

_They both silently glared at her until she caved._

_"Fine! I'll try to be…_ mature _." She shuddered dramatically and both boys had grinned._

Nye came out of it at the sound of T-Dog's voice. "Good idea. Maybe you'll see your chupacabra up there too." He said, teasing Daryl.

She held back a snort at the memory of what he was talking about. Oh how she wished she could join him on the teasing, but she made the boys a promise.

"Chupacabra?" Rick prompted, slowly starting to grin.

Dale, (Nye internally cheered) decided to join in on the teasing. "You never heard this? Our first night in camp, Daryl tells us that the whole thing reminds him of a time when he went squirrel hunting and he saw a chupacabra."

Jimmy chuckled, and Daryl scowled back at him.

"What are you brayin' at, jackass?"

"You believe in a blood-sucking dog?" Jimmy snarked right back, and Nye was _this_ close to breaking the deal and piggy backing on all of this.

But Daryl was sharper than she gave him credit for. "Do you believe dead people walkin' around?" He just as quickly sniped back.

Nye paused, and begrudgingly gave him a clap and a half at that retort. In her head that is, no way would she do it for real for everyone around to see.

Jimmy didn't have anything to say to that, so he instead reached for one of the shotguns.

"Hey, hey." Rick stopped him, taking the gun himself. "Ever fire one before?"

Jimmy looked around at them, clearly confused as to what the big deal was. "Well, if I'm going out, I want one."

Daryl shrugged his crossbow on. "Yeah, and people in hell want slurpees."

Nye couldn't fight off her snort at that.

"Why don't you come train tomorrow?" Shane suggested to Jimmy before he could leave. "If you're serious, I'm a certified instructor."

At Shane's obvious bragging, Nye rolled her eyes, making her hand and fingers into the shape of a gun and miming to blow her brains out. Not noticing Daryl's shoulders shaking slightly with a silent chuckle at her display.

"For now he can come with us." Andrea said.

"He's yours to babysit then." Shane warned her.

Nye and Daryl once again went separate ways before going to search, this time he was going to get a horse, but she was off to find her kids again.

When she found them, she froze and stared at them in curiosity.

"What in the hell are you doing?" She raised a brow, hands settling on her hips.

Staring back at her from the ground were her two boys, covered head to toe in dirt, and both gripping large clumps of it in their hands.

"Lookin' for worms." Mason said in a tone that implied _she_ was the one who needed to explain herself.

She narrowed her eyes at them. "What for?"

" **Fishing**." She was answered by both, followed by Mason's "Duh."

She remained skeptical, but slowly nodded her head. "But what about all the worms I just dug up, there's no way we went through all of those already."

They both paled, exchanging fearful glances.

Her jaw clicked, and she glared down at them. "The hell happened to my worms?" She asked in a deathly quiet voice.

Mason ducked his head, while Toby gulped and answered. "Last time we went fishing… They sorta fell in the water."

They both fearfully watched her as she shut her eyes tightly and sighed through her nose.

"By the time we get back, this bucket better be full of worms. Got it?"

They both nodded. "Yes ma'am."

The Walkers had nothing on their guardian.

  
  


"That her?"

Daryl turned from his position in front of a brown and saddled horse to Nye as she walked into the stable.

He answered with a simple "Yep."

She grinned, walking closer to the beautiful animal, letting it sniff her hand.

"I'm gonna call you Buttercup." She said brightly, and out of nowhere.

Daryl gave her a bemused look. "Its probably got a name already."

She hummed, ignoring him and not taking her eyes off of the horse.

"Mmmm… Nope! I'm calling her Buttercup."

Daryl sighed, giving up. After he got on, he held a hand out to her to help her up, and once she was firmly on the saddle he lightly kicked the horse's sides to get her going.

Nye carefully placed her hands stiffly on his shoulders for support, and as they rode off to the woods, she could have sworn she saw Toby nudge Mason for his attention, nod in their direction, and then he and Mason both give them thumbs up before they disappeared from her line of sight.

  
  


"Do we even have to do anything at this point?"

"I don't know, but you know how Nye gets with grudges."

"Nah, I bet they'll come back as buds."

"That's pushing it Mason. Lets just hope they come back without Nye having ripped his head off."

  
  


The bolt left his crossbow in a blur, and she scowled at the sight of the furry monster he shot against a tree.

" _Why_." She simply groaned.

He grabbed the dead squirrel from the tree, and shrugged. "You never know."

She hated that she couldn't refute that.

They continued down the path in silence, and as they reached the top of a hill with a lake at the bottom, they slowed down, looking at an object at the bottom in shock.

Staring back up at them from the shore of the lake, was a familiar doll.

Nye's heart began racing, making her wince and put a hand over her chest.

Daryl got down and signaled for her to stay on the horse while he went down to get it. He reached down and picked up the water logged doll, after looking it over he quickly looking up to her and nodded, silently telling her it was indeed Sophia's doll. He called the girl's name a few times, both of them peering around and looking to see if they could spot her anywhere.

After waiting a bit longer with no response, he made it back up the hill and to the horse. Nye didn't bother sticking her hand out to him, they both knew if she tried to pull him up it would only lead to him pulling her down from the size and weight difference.

They rode on for a bit longer, and as they got up to the top of a hill much larger than the one before, a small flock of birds flew up and startled the horse. Daryl did well in calming her, taking a second before urging her onward. But they only made it a yard or two.

All Nye heard before she and Daryl were thrown off was the hiss of a snake, and a terrified whinny from the horse.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!"

"Shit!"

As they tumbled down, all she could hear was the grunts from her and Daryl, the horse running away, and fabric tearing.

Before her head hit something hard and solid… And she blacked out.

  
  


_"Do I have to?" Toby meekly asked._

_"Sorry Smalls, you've gotta face your fears with this, don't give the bullies power." Nye told him, leaning over the front seat and patting him on the shoulder._

_Toby tilted his head slightly. "Smalls?"_

_Mason grinned. "Yep, like how I'm Ace."_

_Toby nodded slowly in understanding, something shining brightly in his eyes at the new term of endearment. He finally sighed and went to hop out of the van, Mason following his lead._

_But Nye got an idea as she looked on at all the kids staring at them outside the van. The two boys had become pretty big targets after the F word incident, but she was about to try and help with that. She grinned and swiftly put in a cassette, turning the dial up all the way._

_'Generation' Started blaring out of the speakers she duct-taped in every corner of Pumpkin. Both boys looked at her in shock and confusion, but she simply mouthed "Go" to them. They followed her order, and as they hopped out, before they could shut the door she yelled over the blaring music._

_"I'll pick you up during lunch and we'll ditch and go to Josh's place to practice your drumming!"_

_Josh was a fellow nurse who immediately offered to give Toby lessons when overhearing Nye mention his growing interest._

_It was clear which boy she was talking to as she stared him down with a cheshire grin. Mason smiled as Toby turned a mighty shade of red as a result of all the stares he was garnering, only these ones were of surprise and interest instead of the judging ones he'd been getting before._

_She knew what she was doing, they were ten year olds after all, she just made Toby the "Interesting one" the one that she knew they'd all flock to by the end of the day, and while it definitely wasn't a permanent fix, it would surely help him for today._

_"Why don't you all fade away…" She softly sung along as she drove to work._

  
  


Mason dragged his feet as he walked towards Pumpkin, hoping to find a shovel or something to help them in their search for worms, and as he reached for the door handle, he heard Glenn and Lori whispering from a few yards away.

"You can't tell anybody, okay?" He heard Lori hiss.

He peered through the windows to look on the other side, and watched as Glenn glanced between her and the approaching Rick.

"You haven't told him yet?" Glenn sputtered in shock.

 _Told him what?_ Mason thought to himself. And as Glenn gave up and left, Mason quickly followed.

Toby can handle getting the worms. He told himself, despite knowing he was gonna get chewed out by the younger boy later.

"Glenn!"

The man turned around and looked at Mason in worry. "Hey Mason, are you okay? What's wrong?"

Mason shook his head. "Nothing's wrong, except the fact you're hiding something with Lori."

Glenn paled and quickly looked in all directions to see if anyone might have heard him. He then placed a hand on Mason's shoulder and walked him over by the side of the Greene house.

"How do you- When did you-" Glenn started.

"I overheard you and Lori, like two seconds ago." Mason blandly told him.

Glenn sighed, clearly beating himself up about being caught. "Look, i-it's complicated…"

Before he could continue, Mason stopped him cold. "I'm gonna stand here and keep guessing what it is, unless you tell me."

"N-no, Mason, don't- I can't-"

"Is she infected?"

"What!? No!"

"Does she know the cure?"

"Of course not! Mas-"

"Are you and her having an affair?"

Glenn simply choked on spit this time.

"Is she pregnant?"

Glenn froze solid, turning an alarming level of white.

Mason gasped. "You are having an affair!?"

The man once again stammered. "W-wha- No! She's preg-" He stopped talking, and Mason had a proud grin on his face, clearly he had been wanting to trick him into admitting it, and had succeeded.

But Glenn quickly got ahold of himself. "Mason, you can't tell anyone. This is between Lori and Rick." He told the boy sternly.

Mason shrugged. "You don't have to worry, I'm good with secrets, why else do you think me and Toby are the only ones who know Nye's name… Well I guess Carl knows too now, but she's the one who told him." He added as an after thought.

Glenn sighed and ruffled his hair. "You and your brother are scarily good at knowing stuff you're not supposed to."

Mason thought back on a conversation he overheard once. "Mmmm, don't feel too bad, I still don't know what 'going down on someone' means, and why Nye would want to do it to Kristen Bell."

Now Glenn turned an alarming level of red.

  
  


As Daryl laid on the hard ground, he blurrily looked up to see a figure standing above him.

"Why don't you pull that arrow out, dummy? You could bind your wound better."

He let out a weak laugh. "Merle."

Merle looked down at him. "What's goin' on here? You takin' a siesta or somethin'?"

"A shitty day, bro."

Merle gave him a fake smile. "Like me to get your pillow? Maybe rub your feet?" He asked mockingly.

"Screw you." Daryl answered.

"Huh-uh. You're the one screwed from the looks of it. All them years I spent tryin' to make a man of you, this is what I get? Look at you. Lyin' in the dirt like a used rubber. You're gonna die out here, brother. And for what?" Merle mocked him.

"A girl." Daryl rasped out. "They lost a little girl."

"So you got a thing for little girls now?" Merle shot back.

"Shut up." Daryl growled, trying to move, but finding it to painful.

"'Cause I noticed you ain't out lookin' for old Merle no more."

"Tried like hell to find you, bro." Daryl defended.

"Like hell you did. You split, man. Lit out first chance you got." Merle argued.

" _You_ lit out. All you had to do was wait. We went back for you. Rick and I, Nye was there too, we did right by you." Daryl told him.

"This the same Rick that cuffed me to the rooftop in the first place? Forced me to cut off my own hand? This him we're talkin' about here?" Merle said angrily, and it was at this point Daryl realized Merle's right hand was still there. "You his bitch now?"

"I ain't nobody's bitch." Daryl growled.

Nye groaned softly a few feet away, still out cold. Merle looked over to her and snorted. "An' what about her, huh? You watch her back, and what's the thanks you get? Why the hell do you even bother with her?"

"She's got kids, man. Has to raise 'em alone" Daryl argued, and only got a mocking snort in response.

"That's her own damn fault, shouldn't of put out if she couldn't take the consequences."

"Adopted." Daryl barked, mind fuzzily taking him back to that first dinner in the CDC. "Their foster kids." He corrected himself tiredly.

Merle scoffed. "That's even worse numb-nuts. Still don't explain why _you're_ tryin' so hard." He shook his head, turning away like he couldn't even look at him. "You're a joke is what you are, playin' errand boy to a bunch of pansy-asses, niggers and democrats." He chuckled. "You're nothin' but a freak to them. Redneck trash. That's all you are. Yeah, they're laughin' at you behind your back. You know that, don't you? I got a little news for you, son. One day they gonna scrape you off their heels like you was dogshit."

Daryl's eyes began to shut, and Merle hit him on the chest to keep him awake. "Hey. They ain't your kin, your blood. Hell, you had any damn nuts in that sack of yours, you'd got back there and shoot your pal Rick in the face for me." He grabbed Daryl's face. "Now you listen to me. Ain't nobody ever gonna care about you 'cept me, little brother." He patted his face a couple times. "Ain't nobody ever will. Come on, get up on your feet before I have to kick your teeth in." With that, he stood up, staring down at Daryl.

He kicked him in the side, the one thankfully missing an arrow. "Let's go."

Merle grabbed his feet and started dragging him, but when Daryl looked down, he was met with a Walker.

  
  


It was slow and gradual, the first thing she registered was the shallow water she was laying in, then the smell of dirt, then the sound of water rushing, just loud enough to hear over the ringing in her ears. But there was something else besides the water she could hear.

Groaning. Walkers.

Nye gasped and her eyes flew open when she realized what it was she was hearing. As she forced herself to sit up, she let out a strangled scream as she put weight on her left arm.

Oh that definitely felt like a fractured forearm.

She looked over in horror as a bloody Daryl was wrestling a Walker, while another one was coming closer only a couple yards away. He looked back and forth between the two, and before she could think over her decision, she was yelling.

"Move!"

Without any questions, Daryl hopped off of the Walker he had pinned, and Nye quickly swooped above it, raising her monkey wrench high, and bringing it down with as much force as she could.

The soft skull turned to mush under the force, looking absolutely horrifying, but she was too busy holding her left arm and whimpering in pain to notice.

She softly fell to the ground on her knees, cradling her arm to her chest, and when she looked up she saw Daryl laying on the ground and shooting the second one stumbling towards him, killing it with a single bolt.

They both panted and silently stared at one another in shock of what just happened. He closed his eyes, while she slowly looked around, trying to get her bearings, and noticed she was on the opposite side of the water than she should be after the fall. She blinked in confusion, but it quickly dawned on her what must have happened.

_He… Pulled me out of the water, and to over here after we fell…_

It was then she felt it. The soft breeze on her arm.

Her _right_ arm.

A soft gasp escaped her throat, and Daryl looked over to her as a result. When he saw her switching the position of her arms, covering up the right one, he sighed.

"Ain't a big deal."

She froze, looking over at him meekly, and it took him a second to continue, as the sight of her meek was such a flip from the immature and independent woman he knew that it stopped him in his tracks.

"…Everyone's got scars." He quietly and uncomfortably finished.

Her jaw opened slightly, and she openly gaped at him. She was having a hard time deciding if the dizziness she suddenly felt was from the concussion she knew she had, or the sudden character development Daryl just displayed.

He slowly got up, and she followed his lead.

"What the hell happened?" A part of her was asking why he pulled her out of the water and over to land.

"Horse got spooked, we fell, and we killed these pricks." Daryl answered and sat himself down on a rock after kicking one of the Walkers.

She rolled her eyes, and she noticed with a start that she had a smile on her face as well. The smile dropped like a stone in water though, as she saw the make-shift bandage he had wrapped around his torso.

"Shit! What happened!?" She asked again, walking up and looking him over.

"A bolt went right through me in the fall." He replied shortly, taking off the rest of his over shirt and folding it, placing it against the wound.

"Then where is it!?" She shrilly questioned.

His eyes unintentionally flickered to the dead Walker with a bolt sticking out of its head.

Her eyes went wide and she looked back and forth between the two. She put her right hand through her hair in stress. "You _ripped_ it _out_!? Jesus, what were you _thinking_ Daryl!?"

When he opened his mouth to reply, she raised her good hand and stopped him. "Nope. No. Don't wanna hear it." She sighed harshly and deeply, and Daryl was beginning to understand why Mason and Toby try so had to stay in her good graces.

She looked up at the hill they fell down, which was starting to look more and more like a cliff each second that passed. "Can you climb?" She asked, still eyeing the cliff.

"Can you?" He retorted, string down her left arm.

She spun on her heel, crossing her arms the best she could. "What, you think I haven't managed worse, Daryl?"

Neither of them commented on the use of his first name.

Without a word, Daryl walked over to one of the washed up tree stumps by the water, she narrowed her eyes at him when he pulled out the dead squirrel from earlier, placing it down on the old wood, and began skinning it. Then, to her horror, he pulled something out, and ate it.

"What the holy fuck-" She started, but stopped when he lazily held the dead squirrel out to her, silently offering her some of its _organs_.

In no other situation would she do what she did next, but the combination of the painful hunger she felt, and more importantly, the challenging glint in his eye had her moving. The glint showed he didn't think she'd actually go for it, that he was teasing her more than anything.

But that glint was what had her squaring her jaw, marching forward, snatching the rodent out of his hand, and finally reaching in to where she figured the liver to be, pulling it out and biting down. She did all of this without breaking eye contact. And was proud enough in herself from the shocked and dumbfounded look on his face, that she was able to ignore the taste and keep chewing.

After that, he grabbed a shoelace from one of the Walkers, and cut off their ears, putting them on the shoelace and making it into a necklace.

"You have issues, dude." She muttered as she watched him.

And finally, they began their climb.

It didn't take long before she was ready to die. She panted and latched onto another small tree halfway up the cliff, whimpering softly from the consistent throbbing coming from her arm. Thankfully, they were making good time.

She chanced looking over at Daryl, who sounded like he was having a worse time than her. "Dude," She panted. "You look like a Walker."

He could only manage a glare in response.

Tears had to be fought off as she reached the top, pulling herself up and onto solid, flat ground. As she laid on her back, she stared up at the blue sky above her, bright enough to burn her eyes. She raised her right arm into the air, and yelled, "Fuck you! Not today!" And let her arm flopped back down, landing on her rapidly raising and falling chest.

Then she could have sworn she heard Daryl talking to himself, but she was too exhausted to even move an inch.

Her eyes lolled over when Daryl finally reached the top, grunting and panting. She intended to joke bout how she had a fucked up arm and yet she still managed to beat him, but the words died on her tongue when he looked around the woods before them, and shouted "Yeah, you'd better run!" Into them.

She wet her lips and carefully sat up, watching him in, dare she say it, worry.

"Welcome to the crazies club." She decided on trying to lighten the mood. "You should be honored, we only let in people who talk to themselves like psychos."

"Stop." He grumbled.

  
  


"Hey Toby, what's all this?" Dale greeted and asked, looking down at the hole in the ground, then at Toby who was covered in dirt.

Toby scowled into the hole. "When I see Mason I'm gonna kick his butt." He muttered darkly.

Dale chuckled lightly, knowing the boy would do no such thing, as he had not a single mean bone in his body. He caught sight of the bucket beside the boy. "Worms?"

Toby nodded solemnly, staring off into space as if traumatized. "She just came out of nowhere, and stared us down with eyes that could stop a raging bull." He whispered in a haunted voice, then shuddered.

Dale nodded, laughing at the mental image of Nye as some sort of wrathful beast, merely at the loss of her worms. Dale decided not to tell Toby he had a supply of worms handy, and that Nye knew about them, so there was no point for him and Mason searching. This was a good learning experience.

After that he walked over to the RV, looking up at Andrea, who was stationed on top with a rifle. "What's with the Annie Oakley routine?"

Andrea sighed. "I don't want to wash clothes anymore, Dale. I want to help keep the camp safe. Is that all right with you?" She sassed.

Dale looked down in shame and walked into the RV, which Glenn was sitting inside.

"Sorry. Just returning your book." Glenn muttered.

Dale raised his hands and waved it off. "Oh no, I'm sorry. If I had known the world was ending, I'd have brought better books."

Glenn looked down, before standing and awkwardly shuffled his feet. "Dale, you think Andrea's on her period?"

Dale turned and motioned for him to quiet down, knowing Andrea might hear them.

"I'm only asking 'cause it's like all the women are acting really weird, well, except for Nye, but she's- you know, _Nye_. And I read somewhere that when women spend a lot of time together, their cycles line up and they all get super crazy hormonal at the same time." Glenn explained his thought, and Dale raised his hand to silence him.

"I-I'm gonna advise you to keep that theory to yourself." Dale warned him.

Glenn nodded. "Yeah."

But as Dale thought over his words, he narrowed his eyes. "Who else is acting weird?"

He tensed. "Uh- Nye." He evaded.

Dale gave him an unimpressed look. "You just said Nye wasn't acting weird, for her standards that is."

He sighed, slowly sitting down and nodding outside the RV. "Maggie." He conceded.

"Ah, Maggie." Dale nodded.

"She started off being mean to me. Then she wanted to have sex with me. And now she's being mean to me again." Glenn explained. "And I don't even want to know what's going on with Lori."

"What's going on with Lori?" Dale asked and Glenn stuttered for a second.

"N-nothing. I don't know."

Dale laughed softly. "All right, let's take this back a step. How do you know that Maggie wanted to have sex with you?" He asked.

Glenn simply bit his thumb and looked up at Dale.

The older man's face fell. "Oh, son, you didn't."

Glenn just smiled proudly.

"Did it ever occur to you how her father might feel about this?" Dale asked in growing concern.

Glenn shrugged. "She's twenty-two."

"And he is our _host_." Dale stressed.

Glenn looked down, not wanting to meet Dale's eyes. "He doesn't know."

"Well, see that it stays that way." The man warned. "Jesus, Glenn, what were you thinking?"

"I was thinking that I might be dead tomorrow. Thanks for the book." He said lowly. As he made it out the door, he muttered, "You're right, it sucks."

Before Dale could leave the RV, Toby walked in, still covered in sweat and dirt. "Are there any water bottles left?" He asked Dale.

Dale nodded distractedly. "Oh, uh yeah, they're in the fridge."

Toby thanked him and opened the mini fridge, smiling when he saw the water, but scowling and turning to Dale with a pout when he saw the full bag of worms sitting innocently inside.

The man smiled thinly and shrugged. "Sorry kid, I'm scared of your mom too."

"Walkers. Walkers!" They both froze at Andrea's shout.

  
  


"Those two better have gotten my worms." Nye muttered to herself as she and Daryl stumbled closer to the Greene property, looking up at the house in the distance with a sigh of relief.

Daryl looked over to her sideways. "Now who's the psycho?"

He got a middle finger back in response.

Before he could say anything else, they watched as T-Dog, Rick, Glenn, and Shane ran up to them.

Nye's smile dropped when she saw they had weapons pointed at them. Much to her shock, she was quickly pulled behind the hunter, whether he had done it reflexively or not, it made something swell in her chest. Something that felt a lot like gratitude mixed with shame.

"Is that Daryl?" She heard Glenn ask, and she couldn't help but roll her eyes.

"No dumbass, it's Oscar the Grouch." She huffed and stepped out from behind Daryl, trying to stomp down the emotions eating at her.

"That's the third time you've pointed that thing at my head. You gonna pull the trigger or what?" Daryl growled, and they all lowered their weapons in relief.

She bumped his arm with her shoulder, a small smile on her face, one that was admittedly more friendly than not. "Nah, they wouldn't, even I haven't gotten the guts to-"

A shot cracked through the farm.

Nye's mouth went dry as Daryl's head snapped back and he dropped. She stared down at the limp form on the ground with wide eyes, her ears rang and she felt bile rise to her mouth.

"D-Daryl?" She whimpered.

"No! No! No!" Rick yelled, and it only added to Nye's panic.

After everything they both went through, after the fall, after the fight with Walkers, after eating a raw liver, she couldn't take this too.

Her vision blacked out, and her body dropped.

"I was kidding." The very much alive Daryl barked out. While Rick and Shane carried him, Glenn and T-Dog carried the unconscious Nye.

"Watch 'er arm." Daryl slurred to them, before promptly passing out.

"Oh my God. Oh my God, is he dead?!" Andrea shouted as she and Dale ran towards them.

"Nye!?"

"What happened!?"

The adults glanced over and saw Mason and Toby running towards them, staring at Nye and Daryl in horror.

"Unconscious. You just grazed him."

"Kids calm down. They're alive." Dale assured them after Rick calmed down Andrea.

"But look at them. What the hell happened?" Glenn asked, looking between the two limp forms. "He's wearing ears, a-and look at her arm!" He said, referring to her right one covered in scars and fresh cuts and bruises.

As they got closer to the house, Rick snatched the ear necklace and muttered, "Let's keep that to ourselves."

"Guys, isn't that Sophia's?" T-Dog suddenly asked, looking down at the doll hanging from Daryl's belt.

  
  


Due to her head injury, Nye woke up later than Daryl did. As her vision cleared she got a good look at her new "partner in crime", laid next to her and getting stitched up by Hershel.

She slowly and subtly looked around the room, noting Rick and Shane were there too. It was then that she remembered her arm was on display. She made a slight choking sound and harshly tucked her arm under the blanket.

The others were staring at her now, Rick in worry, Shane in suspicion, and Daryl in… Understanding?

Later on in the future, she'd learn Daryl threatened the group with bodily harm if anyone tried mentioning her arm.

"The hell happened?" She slurred.

"Daryl was just telling us." Rick kindly replied.

She nodded, suddenly noticing the large mass of white sitting next to her was her left arm. It was wrapped in so much bandaging it almost looked like an actual cast. She mentally winced at the poor attitude Hershel was sure to have after using up so much of his medical supplies on people he wasn't fond of.

"We found it washed up on the creek bed right there. She must have dropped it crossing there somewhere." Daryl explained to Rick where they found the doll.

"Cuts the grid almost in half." Rick muttered determinedly.

"Yeah, you're welcome." Daryl grunted while Hershel finished his stitches.

"How's he looking?" Rick asked the vet.

"I had no idea we'd be going through the antibiotics so quickly." Hershel said passive aggressively.

Ah, there it was

"Any idea what happened to my horse?" He continued, going around the bed to check Nye's head.

"Yeah, the one who almost killed us? If it's smart, it left the country." Daryl barked and Nye giggled.

"We call that one Nelly, as in Nervous Nelly." Hershel told them as he washed his hands in a bowl of water. "I could have told you she'd throw you if you'd bothered to ask." He said and started checking the wrapping around Nye's head that was starting to be tinged red. "It's a wonder you people have survived this long."

Nye shrugged at that, eyelids heavy. She was very acquainted with what a concussion felt like, and this tiredness, slurred speech, and slow reaction time were all things she remembered.

Hershel looked back down at her, taking a flashlight and checking her pupils. "Yes, definitely a concussion." He confirmed, leaning back. Setting the flashlight aside, he started asking the usual questions. "What state are you in?"

"Currently? One of pain." She snarked, thinking there was no reason to bother with the questions.

He gave her a disapproving look. "What state are you in?" He asked firmly.

She blew out a sigh. "Georgia." She answered blandly.

"Who is the current president?"

"Barack Obama."

"What is your birthday?"

She was tempted to lie, just to spite him because there's no way he could know, but she decided against it. "December sixth."

"What is your name."

"Nye."

Hershel gave her an unamused look. "Your full name."

Nye tensed. "Really? Why? We already know I'm mostly fine after I answered the other-"

"Just answer him, Nye." Rick softly told her.

She swallowed hard, staring down the old man, and then, she got an idea, she decided to make something of the moment.

She turned her eyes over to Daryl, who stared back in confusion. She took in a deep breath through her nose, keeping her eyes on his, and answered.

"Niagara Elise Conner."

His eyes widened, because he could recognize what this was. This was her own way of offering a fresh start, of offering… Not a hand at friendship, but a chance of it.

This was her way of starting over, and giving him a fair chance.

"Niagara?" The moment was broken by Shane's amused disbelief.

She growled and turned her head slowly to him. "Yeah, so what? I mean at least it's not a douchebag name like Hunter, or Chad, or Shane… Oh, wait!"

He glared at her and opened his mouth in retort when Rick stepped in.

"Alright, that's enough."

He and Shane left the room, Hershel following shortly after. Then, it was just the two former enemies.

"I gotta say Daryl, I never envisioned myself in bed with you." Nye cheekily said, and while a few weeks ago, it would have been said to be mean spirited, now, it was nothing more than a tease.

And she took comfort in the small sputter it caused.

  
  


As they impatiently waited on the steps of the stairs, Toby bounced his leg up and down, while Mason chewed on the sleeve of his shirt. Both of them were waiting for the same thing.

To be given the go ahead to see Nye.

Their heads shot up when they heard approaching footsteps, and when it was revealed to be Carol, they both looked to her hopefully.

She gave a soft nod. "Hershel said they're all patched up." She wasn't even finished when they bolted up the stairs and to the room.

They didn't bother knocking, swinging the door open and preparing to shower their guardian with hugs and praise for surviving.

But anything they were going to say or do was forgotten as they stared at the shocking sight in front of them.

Nye was clutching her stomach tightly, and quietly cackling, whereas Daryl was looking slightly proud of himself for causing her reaction at whatever it was he had said.

As she got ahold of herself, she looked to the doorway, spotting the boys and grinning ear to ear (Obviously slightly delirious). "Hey! What are you just standing there for?"

They exchanged unsure glances, and slowly walked over to the bed, not noticing the way Daryl hurriedly tugged the blanket over himself. Whereas Nye pulled her right arm out from under it, completely comfortable with Mason and Toby seeing her scars. Not that they knew how she really got them.

"What happened?" Mason asked, not at all referring to the trip, but to the sudden change between the two.

Nye leaned her head back and groaned. "How many times are we gonna hear that question today?"

After that, she and Daryl grudgingly told the story once again, and every time Daryl paused to leave out a gory detail, Nye would immediately tell them about it in full, leading Daryl to see how Nye treated them, for the most part, like equals. He stopped sugar-coating things for them after that realization.

"Wait, wait, wait." Toby stopped them. "You ate a liver?!"

Nye nodded sheepishly.

Then, Toby took on a cocky grin, one that Mason soon shared once he caught on.

"So… You ate a liver, one from a squirrel?"

She nodded dumbly.

His grin grew even larger. "So, you _technically_ ate squirrel."

She blinked, then as it sank in, groaned, flushing slightly.

Daryl was left clueless.

  
  


Mason and Toby were sent back down to eat dinner, but they got their plates and ran back, telling the two the awkwardness in the air was actually killing them.

It wasn't long after they finished their food that they crashed, once again, the excitement exhausting them.

Nye stared at them with loving amusement, as they limply hung halfway out of the chair they shared in the corner.

"I'll have to ask Dale about that guitar, like Smalls mentioned." She murmured tiredly after not being allowed to rest, due to her concussion.

Daryl looked at her in confusion. "Why? You play?"

She grinned softly, nodding as best she could with how heavy her head felt.

They both looked up as Carol walked in, balancing two trays with food for both of them.

"How are you two feeling?" She softly asked.

"As good as I look." Daryl muttered.

"About how I felt that time I got hit in the head with a bat." Nye said cheerily.

It was clear by the looks on their faces that both adults expected, or at least hoped, for her to say she was kidding, but she was indeed not.

Carol cleared her throat. "I brought you some dinner. You must be starving." She addressed them both, then, after some hesitation, leaned down and kissed Daryl's forehead.

He laid there, stunned for a second, before muttering, "Watch out, I got stitches."

He glared out of the corner of his eye at Nye, who was wiggling her eyebrows suggestively.

"You need to know something. You two did more for my little girl today than her own daddy ever did in his whole life." She told them, looking back and forth between the two.

Nye was stunned, only managing to flush and smile at the short haired woman.

And Daryl was clearly not sure how to take such praise as well. "I didn't do anything Rick or Shane wouldn't have done."

She smiled. "I know." The next part was aimed at him, and him alone. "You're every bit as good as them. Every bit."

He leaned back as she left, and Nye didn't waste a second.

"I bet it was the flower. Chicks dig flowers."

"Stop."


End file.
